Finally
Shackleton’s Famous Antarctic Shipwreck Finally Discovered in The World’s ‘Worst Sea’
Explorers have found one of the most famous shipwrecks in history, Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance, deep in the icy sea off Antarctica more than a century after it sank, they announced Wednesday. Endurance was discovered at a depth of 3,008 meters (9,869 feet) in the Weddell Sea, about six kilometers (four miles) from where it … Read more
Spiders Use Electric Fields to Fly, And We May Finally Know How
Having never evolved wings, many species of spider instead evolved an uncanny ability to take to the skies using nothing more than a few short threads of gossamer dangling from their dainty butts. Just how this invertebrate answer to paragliding works has never been entirely clear, though historically biologists have assumed it probably has … Read more
A Common Link Between Several Neurodegenerative Diseases Might Finally Be Identified
There’s a hallmark of incurable neurodegenerative diseases – misfolded proteins that clump together to form sticky plaques or tangles called fibrils. Now, new research has discovered that a protein normally tasked with clearing cells of molecular debris might be a common feature of a cluster of common and rare neurodegenerative diseases, including two distinct forms … Read more
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
Messenger RNA Therapies Are Finally Fulfilling Their Promise
In just 17 years, messenger RNA therapies have gone from proof of concept to global salvation. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for COVID-19 have been given to hundreds of millions of people, saving countless lives. In 2005 Katalin Karikó and I created a way to make mRNA molecules that would not cause dangerous inflammation when … Read more
We May Finally Know The Origin of The Mysterious Venus of Willendorf
An ancient sculpture carved by Paleolithic humans some 30,000 years ago is evidence that our ancestors were a restless bunch who roamed far and wide, new research has revealed. Scientists have peered closely at the famous Venus of Willendorf and determined that the stone from which it is carved likely originated from Northern Italy, … Read more
Strange Evolutionary Pace of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations Is Finally Revealed in New Study
The timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic has been marked by a series of catastrophic waves: surging crests of infection spreading around the world, often spearheaded by newly evolved variants of the pathogen, such as Delta and Omicron. This is simply how viral evolution can play out, of course. But SARS-CoV-2 is an unusually successful … Read more
Some Children Die Without Explanation. Genetics Is Finally Giving Us Answers
The sudden and unexpected death of a child is a tragedy made all the worse when there’s absolutely no explanation. Each year in the United States, hundreds of children die for undetermined reasons, usually in their sleep or while resting. Due to the way deaths are investigated and certified, it’s hard to say how often this … Read more
Nasal Spray COVID Preventives Are Finally in Development
Different methods of drug delivery give us more tools to fight disease Credit: James Olstein Advertisement Covid is credited with propelling clinical innovation. But for a disease that seems to start in people’s noses, none of the available drugs or vaccines are delivered intranasally. Killing the virus before it travels into our lower airways could … Read more