Archeologists recently uncovered an example of a “vampire” burial in Poland with a sickle around the body’s neck to keep it from rising from the grave. But there are other ways humans prevented the undead “vampires” from tormenting the living, one of which was placing a rock or brick in their mouth, experts told Insider.
Of all the rings in the Solar System, Saturn’s are, inarguably, the most spectacular. Unlike the thin circles of dust and rock encircling Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and even a Kuiper Belt dwarf planet named Haumea, Saturn’s particolored ring system is a gloriously extensive thing. Dotted with tiny moons that sculpt its edges, it is a
Some scientists are becoming clam ‘whisperers’ to better predict when our planet’s climate will tip over into dangerous territory. A tight-lipped bivalve might sound like an odd creature for researchers to turn their ear to, but as we are coming to learn, clams are exceptional natural historians. Similar to the rings of a tree, the
Clues within ancient animal poop challenge the current prevailing theory that humans tamed plants before beasts. Researchers found the preserved dung in question alongside buried remains of ancient hunter-gatherer dwellings in Syria that date back to around 13,000 years ago. “We were surprised when we realized that hunter-gatherers were bringing live animals to Abu Hureyra
On Earth, shifts in our climate have caused glaciers to advance and recede throughout our geological history (known as glacial and inter-glacial periods). The movement of these glaciers has carved features on the surface, including U-shaped valleys, hanging valleys, and fjords. These features are missing on Mars, leading scientists to conclude that any glaciers on
The Moon‘s gravitational pull on our planet’s tides is just one of Earth’s many steady thrums of life. Now researchers have found that lunar cycles not only synchronize the timing of animal migrations and mass spawning of corals but may also influence fluctuations in mangrove canopy cover. Given the growing interest in mangroves as natural
Hundreds of millions of years ago, a carnivorous critter gorged on a feast of prehistoric amphibians – and puked up its meal afterward. Now, paleontologists have unearthed the regurgitation and published their findings of the ancient upchuck. In 2018, researchers discovered the regurgitalite – fossilized remains of an animal’s stomach contents, also known as a
A core principle of Einstein’s general theory of relativity has just passed its most stringent test yet. Using a specially designed satellite, an international team of scientists measured the accelerations of pairs of free-falling objects in Earth’s orbit. Results based on five months’ worth of data indicated the accelerations didn’t differ by more than one
The devastating destruction that’s happening across the Amazon might be what comes to your mind first when thinking about deforestation – but it’s by no means the only place where dwindling forests are a worry, as a new study highlights. It’s the first study to comprehensively examine the amount of forest lost to intensive industrial
Motivation to act on climate change often comes in one of two forms; the metaphorical threat of a stick or the lure of a carrot. For years now, scientists have been trying to whip our slow-moving ass into shape (to keep with the metaphor, of course). But as we collectively drag our feet, the juicy
Built in the 1980s, the Balbina Dam is one of dozens of large dams across rivers in the Amazon Basin. Such dams might leave behind seemingly green patches of forest, but our new research has shown these disconnected patches of forest are no longer able to support thriving ecosystems. The dam created one of the
Do aliens exist? Almost certainly. The Universe is vast and ancient, and our corner of it is not particularly special. If life emerged here, it probably did elsewhere. Keep in mind this is a super broad assumption. A single instance of fossilized archaebacteria-like organisms five superclusters away would be all it takes to say, “Yes,
As any frustrated parent knows, there’s no magic way to get a crying baby to calm, let alone fall asleep. But a small new study has now highlighted a simple method that may be more effective than others. According to the research, if you want to soothe a wailing infant, sitting down with them in
The Orion nebula is one of the most studied regions of our sky. It sits amidst the constellation of Orion, between the stars, and is so large, close, and bright it can be seen with the naked eye: a vast cloud complex giving birth to and nurturing baby stars. Because it is relatively close, at
Australia’s crafty, sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) appear to have entered an “innovation arms race” with humans, scientists say, as the two species spar over the rubbish in roadside bins. The white birds, which can grow nearly as long as a human arm, initially surprised researchers by devising an ingenious technique to prise open household bin
Dramatic footage showed killer whales using a rare hunting technique to trap and kill a seal in the icy waters surrounding Antarctica. The video, part of the BBC’s new Frozen Planet II documentary released Sunday in the UK, shows four killer whales that attacked a Weddell Seal. The seal had found refuge on a platform
Scientists think they have finally figured out why a super-hard form of diamond called lonsdaleite is found inside a rare type of meteorite. If researchers are right, the crystal’s origin story of is every bit as shocking as the material itself. Unlike traditional diamonds, which are formed when graphite is squeezed slowly by the pressures
We have exactly one world, in all the Universe, that we know for a fact to be hospitable to life: ours. So when we’re looking for habitable planets in other planetary systems, beyond our own corner of the galaxy, we often use Earth as the perfect template. But a new study has revealed Earth isn’t
Few things in the Universe keep the beat as reliably as an atom’s pulse. Yet even the most advanced ‘atomic’ clocks based on variations of these quantum timekeepers lose count when pushed to their limits. Physicists have known for some time that entangling atoms can help tie particles down enough to squeeze a little more
Asking the internet to name a scientific mission has become something of a tradition, but we think even the bravest might quail at a recent ask on Twitter. An unofficial Twitter account promoting future missions to our Solar System’s ice giants, Ice Giant Missions, requested suggestions for what to name a probe sent to Uranus.
To date, 5,084 extrasolar planets have been confirmed in 3,811 planetary systems, with another 8,912 candidates awaiting confirmation. These discoveries have provided astronomers with a detailed sampling of the types of planets that exist in our Universe, ranging from gas giants several times the size of Jupiter to smaller, rocky bodies like Earth. So far,
Becoming a new parent is an adjustment for both men and women. A dozen or so previous studies have shown that motherhood can change the structure of a person’s brain, and yet fatherhood is comparatively overlooked. Now, new international research has identified neurological changes amongst first-time fathers as well. The study is only small, but
From soaring coastal redwoods to dinosaur-era Wollemi pines and firs that make the perfect Christmas trees, even our most revered woody plants are in an awful lot of trouble. But it turns out that losing some species won’t just endanger local forests; it will threaten entire ecosystems, says a new study. Last year, a global
The Milky Way galaxy could be a much wetter place than we knew. A new analysis of exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars suggests that we may have been missing a population of “water worlds” – soggy planets whose composition consists of up to 50 percent water. Not all of these worlds will be covered in
It’s been easy to feel disconnected over the past two and a half years, despite all the hours spent doing Zoom trivia and online gaming with friends. But it turns out that, even when we’re physically alone, our brains may be able to sync up with the minds of others we’re playing with better than
This interesting image from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a field of fascinating dunes called barchan dunes. These dunes have formed along a cliff in Chasma Boreale, in the North Pole of Mars. The High-Resolution Imaging Experiment, or HiRISE, is a powerful camera that takes pictures that see features as small
The summer of 2022 was the hottest in Europe’s recorded history, with the continent suffering blistering heatwaves and the worst drought in centuries, the European Commission’s satellite monitor said on Thursday. The five hottest years on record have all come since 2016 as climate change drives ever longer and stronger hot spells and drier soil
The rim rock crowned snake is said to be the rarest legless slitherer in North America. Not only does this small snake spend most of its life underground, hiding in crevices or burrowing beneath rocks, but only about 26 individuals are known to exist. These survivors are confined to what’s left of southern Florida’s pine
On the morning of August 24, a breezy late-summer wind carried a cascade of clouds over the Rock of Gibraltar. The windy waterfall captivated onlookers, and a view from the airport was filmed and shared as a timelapse on the Met Office Gibraltar’s Twitter account. The London Gatwick @easyJet flight taxiing and taking off from
A red dwarf star just 105 light-years away may be hosting at least one habitable world. In close orbit around the cool, dim star, scientists have found and confirmed two rocky exoplanets – one comfortably at a distance range to the star known as the habitable zone. Follow-up observations will need to be made to
Water is a key ingredient to all life on Earth, yet tardigrades with their near immortal-like powers can somehow endure being sapped of almost all their H2O. Now, researchers have discovered another trick these chubby microscopic anomalies use to survive years of extreme dehydration. “Although water is essential to all life we know of, some
One secret of the past that can be revealed through the study of skulls and skeletons is how frequent violence was amongst our ancestors. However, with their preserved soft tissues, mummified remains can be an even more telling indicator than bones alone. That brings us to a new analysis of three pre-Columbian South American mummies,
Korea’s ‘artificial Sun’ reactor has made headlines this week by officially sustaining plasma at a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for more than 20 seconds. The team at the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device reached an ion temperature of above 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit). According to New Scientist,
Failing to achieve the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C could trigger multiple dangerous “tipping points” where changes to climate systems become self-sustaining, according to a major new study published in Science. Even current levels of warming have already put the world at risk of five major tipping points – including
Giant viruses have been discovered infecting microscopic algae in a rare lake in the Arctic Ocean, a new study finds. The Milne Fiord epishelf lake is a body of freshwater that sits on top of seawater less than 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the North Pole. Researchers studying the lake found that the freshwater had
We all had to make adjustments as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded – even zoo animals who were suddenly not seeing crowds of visitors pass by every single day. A new study shows how primates reacted to that shift. The research looked at bonobos, chimpanzees, western lowland gorillas and olive baboons, finding that these animals changed
The Sun has been up to some pretty intense shenanigans lately, but a recent eruption on the far side looks to be absolute science gold. On the evening of September 5 GMT, an enormous coronal mass ejection (CME) was recorded exploding on the far side of the Sun, sending a radiation storm out across the
In conversations with strangers, people tend to think they should speak less than half the time to be likable but more than half the time to be interesting, according to new research my colleagues Tim Wilson, Dan Gilbert and I conducted. But we’ve also discovered this intuition is wrong. Our paper, recently published in the
Once containing a vast, prehistoric ocean, the Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia is an extraordinary landscape. Now a scrubby desert on limestone bedrock, it’s extremely flat and almost featureless, extending for over a thousand kilometers. But a new discovery suggests that the vast, semi-arid expanse may not be as featureless as we thought. Using satellite
When you’re working or studying, what do you have on in the background? Perhaps a podcast, music of some kind, or maybe complete silence? Evidence suggests that certain types of music might help or indeed hinder our attempts to learn. But in the future, there might be a better way. A new study reviewing past
Over the last 50 years, the oceans have been working in overdrive to slow global warming, absorbing about 40 percent of our carbon dioxide emissions, and over 90 percent of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere. But as our research published today in Nature Communications has found, some oceans work harder than others. We
A girthy stone penis sculpture recently uncovered at an ancient Roman site in Spain measures about 18 inches (46 centimeters) long, which could make it the largest Roman phallus carving ever discovered. The chiseled genitals may have been carved and displayed to ward off bad luck, according to experts. Archaeologists uncovered the lengthy sculpted shaft
Fossilized human remains, weathered by the elements and fragmented by earthly processes, are often missing body parts. But the discovery of a human skeleton found in Indonesian Borneo missing its lower left leg has delighted scientists, who report the find is the oldest evidence of surgical amputation unearthed to date. Uncovered in a limestone cave
A new study has shown that the concept of the mammalian ‘lizard brain’ can be well and truly put to bed. Based on a study that examined brains of bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps), large lizards from the Australian desert, scientists have shown that mammal and reptile brains evolved separately from a common ancestor. It’s another
A new portrait from the world’s most powerful solar telescope has captured the face of our Sun in exquisite detail. Up close and personal to the giant star, at a resolution of just 18 kilometers, the middle layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the chromosphere, looks almost like a shag rug. A slice of
There are all kinds of pollutants in the air around us. Outdoors, these can be washed away through the falling rain, and the oxidation that happens after ultraviolet light from the Sun interacts with ozone and water vapor. So, what happens indoors? As a new study shows, there’s also some oxidation going on indoors too:
A stellar nursery nicknamed the Tarantula Nebula has been captured in crisp detail by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, revealing hitherto unseen features that deepen scientific understanding, the agency said Tuesday. Officially known as 30 Doradus, the region of space is characterized by its dusty filaments that resemble the legs of a hairy spider, and
An Antarctic body of ice nicknamed the ‘Doomsday Glacier’ could melt far faster than previously expected and is holding on “by its fingernails,” according to new scientific research. The melting of the Thwaites Glacier – which is around the size of Florida – could raise sea levels by up to two feet. It’s that, and
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 6
- Next Page »