There’s a lot going on in the centre of our galaxy. The Milky Way’s core is home to a supermassive black hole as massive as 4 million Suns called Sagittarius A*, and the environment around it is intense. Blowing out from this region is a nuclear galactic wind. It’s carved out two huge gamma-ray bubbles
Month: August 2020
Having strong, biased opinions may say more about your own individual way of behaving in group situations than it does about your level of identification with the values or ideals of any particular group, new research suggests. This behavioural trait – which researchers call ‘groupiness’ – could mean that individuals will consistently demonstrate ‘groupy’ behaviour
Life was trying, but it wasn’t working out. As the Late Devonian period dragged on, more and more living things died out, culminating in one of the greatest mass extinction events our planet has ever witnessed, approximately 359 million years ago. The culprit responsible for so much death may not have been local, scientists now
In the north of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the Nefud Desert, archaeologists have recently catalogued vast stone monuments dating back 7,000 years. Shaped like long rectangles, the ‘mustatil‘ structures are a mystery – but new evidence suggests they were possibly used for ritual or social purposes. Mustatils are amongst the earliest forms of large-scale stone
A California resident has tested positive for plague, marking the state’s first human case of the disease in five years, according to health officials. The case was confirmed on Monday (August 17) in a resident of South Lake Tahoe, according to a statement from the El Dorado County Department of Health and Human Services. The individual is described
A car-size asteroid flew within about 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) of Earth on Sunday. That’s a remarkably close shave – the closest ever recorded, in fact, according to asteroid trackers and a catalogue compiled by Sormano Astronomical Observatory in Italy. Because of its size, the space rock most likely wouldn’t have posed any danger to people on
A pair of Danish computer scientists have solved a longstanding mathematics puzzle that lay dormant for decades, after researchers failed to make substantial progress on it since the 1990s. The abstract problem in question is part of what’s called graph theory, and specifically concerns the challenge of finding an algorithm to resolve the planarity of
Just as you thought it was safe to go back to ignoring Betelgeuse, the red giant star started acting up again. After its first round of dimming, and then brightening, Betelgeuse has now started to dim once again. Moreover, this new dimming is inconsistent with Betelgeuse’s current brightness variation cycle – so, once again, the
California’s Death Valley recorded what may be its hottest ever temperature on Sunday (August 16) – a blazing 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 degrees Celsius). If that National Weather Service (NWS) measurement holds up, it will have been the hottest August temperature recorded there by 3 F (1.7 C), the hottest temperature recorded in Death Valley
Around 15,000 light-years away, an active black hole seems to be periodically lighting up an otherwise unremarkable cloud of gas with gamma rays. But there’s a catch. The gas cloud is around 100 light-years from the black hole – and exactly how the cloud is pulsing in time with it is a mystery. It’s unlikely,
NASA is actively monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth’s magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa. This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA
An international team of marine scientists have discovered 30 new species of invertebrates in deep water surrounding the Galapagos, the Ecuadoran archipelago’s national park authorities announced Monday. The deep-sea experts discovered fragile coral and sponge communities including 10 bamboo corals, four octocorals, one brittle star and 11 sponges – as well as four new species
The existence of time crystals – a particularly fascinating state of matter – was only confirmed a few short years ago, but physicists have already made a pretty major breakthrough: they have induced and observed an interaction between two time crystals. In a helium-3 superfluid, two time crystals exchanged quasiparticles without disrupting their coherence; an
They may not have had fancy mattresses, but the earliest human ancestors were quite capable of putting together a cosy place to sleep. Newly found remains of human bedding in an ancient archaeological site show just how clever they were at doing so. In the well-known site of Border Cave in South Africa, archaeologists have found
When you see a face in a cloud, in the slots of a power point, or on the side of a house, there’s a term for it: face pareidolia. This strange perception phenomenon makes lifeless, inanimate objects appear to have facial features – the basic shapes of two eyes and a mouth is often all
Earth is a genuinely magical place. We know that’s not the sort of thing you’d expect to read on a science website, but just take a look at the photo above – a pre-dawn picture taken by an Expedition 62 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS) back in March. In this image, taken
If you’ve ever looked up during a thunderstorm and glimpsed a red jellyfish sitting high in the sky, you weren’t hallucinating. These tentacle-like spurts of red lightning are called sprites. They’re ultrafast bursts of electricity that crackle through the upper regions of the atmosphere – between 37 and 50 miles (60 and 80 kilometres) up
Plastics were not made for human consumption, and yet consume them we must. Tiny remnants of these synthetic polymers have now leached into our air, food and water, and avoiding them has turned into an almost impossible battle. A study of five popular seafoods, bought from a market in Australia, reveals just how ubiquitous these
A ship that has leaked more than 1,000 tonnes of oil in pristine waters off the Mauritius coast has split in two, its Japanese operator said Sunday. The bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the southeastern coast of Mauritius on July 25 and began oozing oil more than a week
Greenland’s ice sheet may have hit a tipping point that sets it on an irreversible path to completely disappearing. Snowfall that normally replenishes Greenland’s glaciers each year can no longer keep up with the pace of ice melt, according to researchers at Ohio State University. That means that the Greenland ice sheet – the world’s
One of the major challenges in turning quantum technology from potential to reality is getting super-delicate quantum states to last longer than a few milliseconds – and scientists just raised the bar by a factor of about 10,000. They did it by tackling something called decoherence: that’s the disruption from surrounding noise caused by vibrations, fluctuations
A species of frog from the Brazilian rainforest has become the first amphibian shown to live in a harem, where one male mates with two females who remain loyal to him. So-called polygyny is thought to be the most common mating system among animals and has previously been found in bony fishes, reptiles, mammals, birds,
The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to loneliness in Australia. This is especially so as Melburnians entered the strictest lockdown to date. Meanwhile, the rest of Australia braces for the possibility of a second wave and people are adapting to new habits and restrictions. This has disrupted our social routines, and in many cases has
Sometimes even those with narcissistic tendencies don’t like looking in the mirror. New research has found that people who excessively approve of themselves are unwilling to reflect on their mistakes. When something unforeseen and unfortunate happens, a narcissist appears less inclined to ask, “What could I have done differently?” and more inclined to throw up
Scientists are ironing out the kinks for an ‘anti-solar power’ cell, one that can harvest energy at nighttime, even when the sun isn’t shining. Instead of absorbing light from the Sun and converting it into electricity, like a normal solar panel would, this type of technology works in reverse. At night, when there’s no incoming
There are some days when the rain falls peacefully and gently, nourishing the Earth. But on some other days the rain comes down in a torrential downpour that meteorologists like me call a cloudburst. Standing outside in one of these intense rainstorms can feel like being smothered in a heavy, wet towel. These storms can
For hundreds of thousands of years, humans have cultivated a close relationship with fire. But for all our fascination and intimacy, both with its dangers and its uses, fire can still stun us with something we’ve never seen before. The blue whirl flame was discovered quite by accident just a few years ago. Scientists were
We all know by now that eating less meat is good for the planet – the production of meat products for human consumption leaves behind a hefty carbon footprint. And 2019 research highlighted a very simple way that canteens in schools and colleges could greatly reduce the amount of meat eaten – without actually having to
A woolly brown rhinoceros that weighed two tons once roamed northeastern Siberia before mysteriously disappearing around 14,000 years ago. Was its demise caused by humans, or the warming climate of the time? A new study by a Swedish and Russian team of scientists who examined DNA fragments from the remains of 14 of these prehistoric mammals
Fans of nature’s horror shows will no doubt be familiar with those tongue-eating parasites known for tapping into the blood supply of fish, sometimes attaching themselves to the tongue, causing it to die and eventually replacing it altogether. Normally, we get to experience these finds as unnerving photos of isopods peeking out the mouth of a
The sudden dimming of one of the brightest stars in the night sky, Betelgeuse, could be due to a dust cloud spewing up from its surface, astronomers said on Thursday. The mystery has enthralled skywatchers since the star – part of the Orion constellation – began to lose luminosity last October, with some experts suggesting
Say hello to a new theropod dinosaur species, Vectaerovenator inopinatus. Discovered after a series of serendipitous fossil finds on the Isle of Wight in the UK, it’s thought to date from around 115 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. The Latin name of the new dino roughly refers to ‘unexpected air-filled hunter from the
NASA’s Mars Odyssey probe has been orbiting the Red Planet for almost 19 years now, making it the longest continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth. That incredible tour of duty means it’s witnessed lots of strange things we can’t easily see from our terrestrial vantage point, and this stunning, colourful
We’ve found the fastest known star in the Milky Way. In the extreme environment at the centre of our galaxy, a newly discovered star called S4714 orbits the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. On its orbital journey, S4714 reaches a velocity of around 8 percent of the speed of light – an absolutely jaw-dropping 24,000
A single locust is just bigger than a paper clip. But when these solitary critters attract others into a growing swarm, billions of locusts wind up flying together, forming a moving carpet that can block out the sun and strip the landscape of plants and crops. Giant swarms like this have devastated large swaths of
Wind and solar produced a record 10 percent of global electricity in the first half of 2020 as the world’s coal plant fleet ran at less than half its capacity, analysis published Thursday showed. Despite a near-record drop in power demand due to the pandemic, renewables accounted for 1,129 terawatt-hours in January-June, compared with 992
Something strange has happened in the voice boxes (or larynxes) of primates: these organs have evolved much faster than in other types of mammals, based on a comprehensive new study of 55 different species. The research – the first of its type into the evolution of the larynx – also shows that primate voice boxes
The world could be headed for an ‘information catastrophe’ as the rate of production of digital bits continues to accelerate with no sign of stopping, new research suggests. In a new study – one firmly positioned in the more abstract quarters of theoretical physics, it must be said – researcher Melvin Vopson from the University
It was a different time. Towards the end of the Cretaceous period, North America was cleaved in two by a giant inland sea. Dinosaurs, nearing the end of their reign, still abounded in this hot, wet place. But they had to watch their step, especially by the water’s edge. In the shallows lurked Deinosuchus: the
The Arctic’s rapidly melting sea ice continues to outrun even our most dire predictions for the future, and that’s not out of line with the past. A new and improved model, based on the last warm period in Earth’s history, now suggests shallow pools of rain and melt water could bring about the end of
We think of sharks as solitary creatures. Lurking silently beneath the waves, each single toothy predator operating alone, coming together only temporarily as feasting or mating dictates. We may, however, be totally wrong. According to new research, sharks could be forming large social groups from which smaller numbers break off to forage, and then return
A new analysis of the genomes of the most famous of ancient humans - Neanderthals and Denisovans - has revealed an as-yet-unidentified ancestor for our species – a branch of our distant family tree without any known label to put to it. The study also finds further evidence of interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals, but places it
For almost as long as stories have been told, stories have been deconstructed. For centuries, theorists, philosophers, and scholars have been pulling narrative structures apart, trying to pin down the most fundamental elements that give stories shape and meaning. As far back as the 4th century BCE, Aristotle was dissecting story structures in this vein,
A massive chunk of Canada’s last fully intact ice shelf, some 4,000 years old, has broken off, reducing the shelf by more than half, scientists reported last Sunday. After separating from the shelf, the piece split in two, forming an iceberg almost the size of Manhattan. Climate change likely fuelled the collapse of the shelf, researchers
The idea of freezing particles by warming them is counterintuitive, to say the least. But physicists have shown how specially designed mixtures ‘melt’ in the dark but crystallise the moment the lights come on, thanks to their unique thermal activity. Instead of bouncing the particles around and spreading them out, the researchers showed that by
You wouldn’t think there’s much of a contest between soft hair or a little bit of beard stubble and a sharp steel razor – and yet, most of us know razors quickly lose their sharpness no matter how carefully you shave. Now scientists have a much better idea why this is happening at the smallest
Scientists can use some pretty wild forces to manipulate materials. There’s acoustic tweezers, which use the force of acoustic radiation to control tiny objects. Optical tweezers made of lasers exploit the force of light. Not content with that, now physicists have made a device to manipulate materials using the force of… nothingness. OK, that may be a
The world has a new brightest fluorescent material, and it’s the first of its kind. Rather than trying to improve fluorescent molecules, a team of chemists have developed a new material that preserves the optical properties of fluorescent dyes. This effectively prevents one of the biggest problems in producing fluorescent materials – the tendency of