Bizarre 300-Year-Old Mummified ‘Mermaid’ Can Finally Be Explained

Researchers in Japan are investigating the origins of a nightmarish, 300-year-old mummified ‘mermaid‘, which has been worshipped for centuries due to its supposed medicinal properties.   The haunting remains are most likely a gruesome amalgam of a monkey’s torso sewed onto a fish’s tail, potentially embellished with hair and nails from a human.  Hiroshi Kinoshita, board member … Read more

Giant Bubbles Expanding From The Milky Way Could Be Explained by a Single Event

Two sets of giant bubbles that extend thousands of light-years above and below the plane of the Milky Way could have been produced by the same event, in spite of their significant difference in size.   They’re called the Fermi bubbles and the eROSITA bubbles, and astronomers believe they were the result of activity by … Read more

James Webb Space Telescope’s groundbreaking optics explained by NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope suffers from astigmatism, but that visual condition is a very good thing for astronomy, NASA assures us. A new explainer video the agency posted on YouTube talks about the huge telescope’s optics and how they will let astronomers peer deep into the universe’s history for future science work, ranging across … Read more

Mystery Tsunami That Spread Around The World in 2021 Can Finally Be Explained

Last year in August, a surprise tsunami in the South Atlantic Ocean mushroomed to distances over 10,000 kilometers (more than 6,000 miles) away, rippling through the North Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Oceans.   It was the first time a tsunami had been recorded in three different oceans since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, … Read more

100 Years Ago, a Quantum Experiment Explained Why We Don’t Fall through Our Chairs

The moment I meet Horst Schmidt-Böcking outside the Bockenheimer Warte subway stop just north of the downtown area of Frankfurt, Germany, I know I have come to the right place. After my “Hi, thank you for meeting me,” his very first words are “I love Otto Stern.” My trip on this prepandemic morning in November … Read more

100 Years Ago, a Quantum Experiment Explained Why We Don’t Fall through Chairs

The moment I meet Horst Schmidt-Böcking outside the Bockenheimer Warte subway stop just north of the downtown area of Frankfurt, Germany, I know I have come to the right place. After my “Hi, thank you for meeting me,” his very first words are “I love Otto Stern.” My trip on this prepandemic morning in November … Read more

The High-Speed Physics of Olympic Sledding, Explained

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Speed alone may be the factor that draws many sports fans to the bobsled, luge and skeleton events at this year’s Beijing Winter Olympics. But beneath the thrilling descents of the winding, ice-covered track, a myriad of concepts … Read more

South Atlantic Anomaly: Have astronomers finally explained space’s Bermuda Triangle?

There is an area of the North Atlantic Ocean known as the Bermuda Triangle where ships, airplanes and people have been known to disappear without explanation. No-one knows for certain why more than 50 ships and 20 planes have vanished since the mid-19th century. But that’s not to say people haven’t had some fun seeking … Read more

NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos

(Image credit: NASA via collectSPACE.com) While Artemis 1 will be uncrewed, it plans to carry several mannequin-type devices to test out how the lunar environment will affect humans.  One example is “Commander Moonikin Campos,” named after Apollo 13 engineer Arturo Campos in a NASA contest. Campos will fly in the commander’s seat and wear an … Read more