According to an American study, people spend around 1.6 billion hours each year standing idly at the roadside, at the cost of US$2.6 billion to the American economy. With all this waiting around, it’s only natural to question whether pushing the “walk” button will help us get to our destination sooner. To answer this question,
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Researchers from Montreal’s National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS) just published a study in Optica detailing a new approach to invisibility cloaking. Their device, called a spectral invisibility cloak, is the first to manipulate the color (or frequency) of the light waves that interact with an object, rendering it invisible. “Our work represents a breakthrough in the quest
Two exoplanets thought to be similar to Earth apparently are, at least when it comes to climate, researc†Kepler-186f is the first identified Earth-sized planet outside the solar system orbiting a star in the habitable zone. This means it’s the proper distance from its host star for liquid water to pool on the surface. The study,
Consider this: right now, you are not where you think you are. In fact, you happen to be the subject of a science experiment being conducted by an evil genius. Your brain has been expertly removed from your body and is being kept alive in a vat of nutrients that sits on a laboratory bench.
Our atmosphere, proximity to the Sun, and countless other beautiful coincidences not only permit living things to survive and evolve but also thrive. And yet, here we are, sitting at desks and in coffee shops and walking down the street like it isn’t some kind of extraordinary miracle. But all good things must come to an
Underneath our feet, deep down in the Earth, liquid iron is producing the magnetic field that we all take for granted. But every now and then that magnetic field reverses or flips its polarity. What was once magnetic north becomes south – and vice versa. When these reversals take place – and why they do
Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are getting ready to make room for 20 new rodent roommates. On Friday morning, a SpaceX Dragon spaceship blasted off from Florida carrying the mice. The rodent crew is expected to arrive at the ISS on Monday. Their record-breaking journey – this is the longest mice will be off the planet –
Cats have some of the most unique eyes in the animal world: Instead of having circular pupils like humans, the black parts in the centres of their eyes are vertical – which can adapt quickly and can open and close like the aperture of a camera. Why are cat eyes so special? It all comes
Goats might not seem like the most cuddly animals, but researchers have found evidence that goats are as clever as dogs, and just as capable of building emotional relationships with humans as all the other domesticated animals we’ve let into our hearts and homes. The 2016 study showed that goats stare intensely at their owner when
Atop Mount Lico in northern Mozambique is a site that few have had the pleasure of seeing – a hidden rainforest, protected by a steep circle of rock. Though the mountain was known to locals, the forest itself remained a secret until six years ago, when Professor Julian Bayliss spotted it on satellite imagery. It
When I was at elementary school, my teacher told me that matter exists in three possible states: solid, liquid and gas. She neglected to mention plasma, a special kind of electrified gas that’s a state unto itself. We rarely encounter natural plasma, unless we’re lucky enough to see the Northern lights, or if we look
The internet has been giggling over the latest satellite map discovery, and we can’t blame them. A giant penis drawing has appeared on a dry lake bed in Victoria, Australia. Details on its provenance are scant, but those who think the dick-and-balls shape is the work of crafty photoshopping can easily check out the real
Deep in the woods of the West Pomerania region of Poland, an entire section of trees bends at sharp angles near their bases, forming an odd and entrancing phenomenon known as ‘The Crooked Forest’. Why do the trees bend like this? No one is quite sure. Some have theorised that harsh weather conditions made them this
The scrotum is a mystery. Why do most male mammals have their reproductive glands so vulnerably located in a sack of skin and muscle outside the body? According to new research, the answer might be found in those unusual mammals that have testicles located inside the abdomen. These includes elephants, aardvarks and others from a
If we’re going to head out into interstellar space one day, we might want to go equipped with some heavy-duty degreaser. New research has found that the vast intervals of space aren’t always filled with dry dust, but often contain a mist of greasy molecules. And there’s a lot of space grease out there. The
The broad legalisation of marijuana in California might be a big win for trade, tax, and lovers of a toke, but it could be a serious threat to one bushy-tailed little predator. Populations of Humboldt martens (Martes americana humboldtensis) have already been struck down thanks to years of shrinking habitat. But it’s taken the proliferation
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is continuing to erupt, with lava gushing throughout a swath of Hawaii’s Big Island and pouring into the Pacific Ocean. The volcano – which has been slowly and continuously erupting for decades – entered a new, more violent eruption phase in May. Thousands of local residents were forced to evacuate following a
It turns out the unlucky Pompeiian man whose body was found under a giant piece of masonry last month wasn’t crushed to death after all. Archaeologists have finally located and excavated his skull – and it’s in perfect condition. Images of the man’s skeleton went viral at the end of May 2018. He had been
Your snacks drawer may have been worth a lot more in the time of the Maya. A new study has revealed chocolate was used as currency by the ancient civilisation, exchanged for goods and services in the same way we might hand over coins or notes. Dominating Mesoamerica during the first millennium CE, the Maya
It seems inevitable. When we grow older, time seems to speed up as we experience the same things over and over again, and part of it’s because even our favourite things in life have become, sadly, no longer new to us. But is there another way? New research has uncovered a simple trick anyone can
Sometimes it feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to see everybody and do everything. Now we can put a figure on the number of places you’re likely to go to, and it’s way fewer than you’d think. While we all have different habits that change over time, a recent study looked
Receiving explicit images of strangers’ private parts is an ugly, unacceptable reality for many online – but for others, it’s called field work. A researcher in Missouri is right now encouraging literally thousands of men to send her these usually unsolicited nude photos – let’s just call them dick pics for short – to gather
Yes, we know. Our smartphone batteries are bad because they barely last a day. But it’s partially our fault because we’ve been charging them wrong this whole time. Many of us have an ingrained notion that charging our smartphones in small bursts will cause long-term damage to their batteries and that it’s better to charge them when
Last year, 39 million acres of forest cover was lost from the world’s tropics. The good news is that this figure is a little lower than the record amounts of canopy destroyed in 2016. But that’s pretty much the only silver lining here. A less generous interpretation of the data suggests there’s no sign of
Florida beaches are being adorned with purple flags to warn swimmers of an almost invisible hazard – an outbreak of “sea lice” in the warm summer waters. Although the creatures can’t survive out of the water, they can sting bodies within – leaving victims with an itchy rash. The name is not entirely accurate –
Giving children music lessons won’t just introduce them to a world of rhythm and melody – it could also significantly improve their language skills. While numerous studies have shown that learning an instrument can impact things like language ability, it wasn’t understood if this was a side effect of a general boost to cognitive skills,
The first known interstellar visitor to our Solar System, ‘Oumuamua, which buzzed past the Sun last September, has proven evasive to define. First it was a comet. Then it was an asteroid. Then it was maybe both. Now a new team of researchers led by the European Space Agency has delivered their verdict: ‘Oumuamua, according
For the past 235 years, a 2.31 metre (7 foot 7 inch) tall skeleton has stood overlooking shelves of pickled cancers, malformed limbs and other assorted medical curiosities in London’s Hunterian Museum. Following a statement by the Royal College of Surgeons, it’s possible those bones might at last be laid to rest on the murky
A pair of swans in Austria have been forcibly removed from the lake they called home after a series of violent, escalating attacks to defend their nest from intrusive humans. The twist in this case is the swans weren’t biological parents, but appear to have been two gay male swans who had formed an inseparable
One of the world’s leading plasma research facilities just broke a new record, showing we really are getting closer to the wonderful goal of fusion power – a virtually limitless supply of clean energy. Experiments on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator – a device that uses magnets to confine clouds of plasma (hot, charged gas) –
The plumes of salty water shooting out of Saturn’s ocean moon Enceladus have just ponied up one of the most significant ingredients for habitability: large organic molecules rich in carbon. It’s a discovery that suggests a thin, organic rich film atop the oceanic water table – very similar to the sea surface microlayer here on
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has long proselytized for the cause of interplanetary colonization. If Earth gets whacked by a giant space rock, a cataclysmic solar storm cripples human electronics, or we cleanse ourselves from the planet in nuclear fire (accidentally or otherwise), it could help to have a backup civilisation on a world
Scientists studying one of the fastest-warming regions of the global ocean say changes in this region are so sudden and vast that in effect, it will soon be another limb of the Atlantic Ocean, rather than a characteristically icy Arctic sea. The northern Barents Sea, to the north of Scandinavia and east of the remote
Scientists have recently discovered and described 29 cool new species of wasp, and their life-cycle is enough to give you nightmares for weeks. Here’s how it goes. Parasitoid wasps lay their eggs in other animals so that their larvae will have something to snack on when they hatch. Oftentimes, this means that the ‘hosts’ are
Just how cold can it get on Earth? Colder than we thought, apparently. A new study of satellite data reports that valleys in Antarctica’s ice sheets can reach close to minus 100 degrees Celsius (or minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit). Very chilly then, and significantly below the previous record of minus 93 degrees Celsius (minus 135
Ordinary matter may only make up 5 percent of the mass of the Universe, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know where it all is. In fact, for 20 years, astronomers have been trying to figure out why there isn’t as much as there should be. Now an international team has put their heads together
A mysterious cataclysm in a neighboring galaxy was spotted in the sky above Hawaii last week, sending astronomers around the world scrambling to understand the source of the staggeringly brilliant flash. “I’ve never seen anything like this before in the local universe,” said Stephen Smartt, an astrophysicist at Queen’s University Belfast and a lead scientist
It’s no secret that our brains are exceptionally flexible and can adapt to new situations. Whether it’s a brain reusing parts of itself for surprising purposes, or helping someone live normally with only 10 percent of the brain undamaged, we’ve got a lot to thank brain plasticity for. But neuroscientists haven’t been sure of how
Several Russian cities had a fantastic light show last Thursday, as a bright meteor burst into a fireball over the landscape. And once again, no one saw it coming until it exploded. NASA’s fireball records show that the meteor exploded with 2.8 kilotons of force on June 21 at 01:16 UTC over a number of
It’s the biggest environmental whodunit of the year, and after following a trail of clues, The New York Times may have cracked the case on why ozone-destroying chemicals are once again polluting our atmosphere. The unexpected and mysterious surge in illegal chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) appears to be coming from Xingfu, a rural industrial town in
July is shaping up to be an excellent month for astronomy fans. Overnight on July 27 and 28, skywatchers in the Eastern Hemisphere will be treated to the longest lunar eclipse set to occur in the 21st century, EarthSky reports. Astronomers expect the total eclipse to last for a full 1 hour and 43 minutes,
Former Microsoft executive, entrepreneur, and physics PhD Nathan Myhrvold is making some big claims: a lot of the data NASA has on distant asteroids is wrong. And those errors are standing in the way of serious asteroid science. Myhrvold’s claims first gained prominence a couple of years ago, but he is now back in the spotlight
Archaeologists in southern Siberia have unearthed a remarkable find – the mummified remains of a woman, carefully adorned in silk and buried with riches. Miraculously, her resting place was unscathed after being underwater for many years. The team spotted the grave on the bank of the Yenisei River upstream of a giant dam – in
Every summer, thousands and thousands of couples tie the knot. That decision has lasting effects on their health over time. Researchers have identified a variety of trends that show how getting married changes people. There has historically been an idea that marriage is good for your physical and mental health, perhaps due to the idea that
Since the 1990s, astrophysicists have known that for the past few billion years, the Universe has been experiencing an accelerated rate of expansion. This gave rise to the theory that the Universe is permeated by a mysterious invisible energy known as ‘dark energy’, which acts against gravity and is pushing the cosmos apart. In time,
NASA’s 15-year-old Opportunity rover has had a rough couple of weeks on Mars. Back on May 30, a pretty big dust storm was spotted on the Martian surface, and Opportunity was right in its path. Since then, it’s only gotten bigger. On June 12, it had reached 35 million square kilometres (14 million square miles),
Thousands of people in Sweden have inserted microchips, which can function as contactless credit cards, key cards and even rail cards, into their bodies. Once the chip is underneath your skin, there is no longer any need to worry about misplacing a card or carrying a heavy wallet. But for many people, the idea of
Hidden 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) under Mount Ikeno in Japan is a place that looks like a supervillain’s dream. Super-Kamiokande (or “Super-K” as it’s sometimes referred to) is a neutrino detector. Neutrinos are sub-atomic particles which travel through space and pass through solid matter as though it were air. Studying these particles is helping scientists
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