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Ancient ‘Vampire’ Cephalopod From 330 Million Years Ago Is a First of Its Kind

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An exceptional fossil unearthed in Montana has given us the earliest known ancestor of vampire squids and octopuses. The cephalopod, belonging to the vampyropod or octopodiform superorder, pushes back the age of the group by about 82 million years.   This challenges our understanding that octopuses evolved from a Triassic ancestor. Fascinatingly, it has not eight, … Read more

Bigbug review: A sci-fi comedy about a sexy kind of singularity

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The new slapstick sci-fi offering by French directorial royalty Jean-Pierre Jeunet is plagued by predictable innuendo Humans 2 March 2022 By Gregory Wakeman Romance can get complicated when you are locked in with a sex robot while the androids attack Bruno Calvo/Netflix Bigbug Jean-Pierre Jeunet Netflix JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET is widely regarded as one of the … Read more

Scientists Built a Coronavirus From Scratch, Then Saw It Trying to Hide

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If you want to truly understand what makes a machine tick, you need to tinker. Swap gears, lock a lever, loosen a spring, and watch how it goes. When the machine is a deadly virus, you can’t afford to be so cavalier with its molecular clockwork. But researchers are getting around this problem by making … Read more

Newly Discovered Dinosaur From Argentina Belongs to a Rather ‘Armless’ Family

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Paleontologists in Argentina have identified a new species of dinosaur which likely had such feeble forearms, it would make Tyrannosaurus rex look like Popeye in comparison. The dinosaur, named Guemesia ochoai and identified from a single skull, is thought to belong to a clade of tiny-armed carnivores known as abelisaurids, which once tramped across Europe, Africa, South … Read more

Microdosing LSD May Not Have The Amazing Brain Effects We Think, New Study Hints

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Small doses of the psychotropic LSD has shown promise in recent years for its potential in rewiring the brain to be faster, happier, and more resilient. A recent study led by researchers from the University of Chicago in the US suggests we’ve got good reason to remain cautious in how we interpret the growing pile … Read more

Newly Invented Catalyst Dramatically Increases The Efficiency of Turning CO2 Into Fuel

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It took nature decades of photosynthesis, followed by eons of intense heat and pressure from geological activity to bake atmospheric carbon dioxide into the long chains of hydrocarbon that make up fossil fuels.   We don’t have the luxury of millions of years to mop up the excess carbon from our atmosphere, but advances in … Read more

Physicists Have Observed a Strange New Kind of Transition in Electronic Crystals

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As basic science teaches us, changes in temperature can result in phase transitions in materials – like when water solidifies as ice in the freezing cold. However, in some cases the temperature that triggers the change is different depending on whether the material is cooling down or warming up. This is known as a hysteresis … Read more

Astronomers Have Identified a New Kind of Supernova We Never Knew Existed

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We often think of supernova explosions as inevitable for large stars. Big star runs out of fuel, gravity collapses its core, and BOOM! But astronomers have long thought at least one type of large star didn’t end with a supernova. Known as Wolf-Rayet stars, they were thought to end with a quiet collapse of their core … Read more

Affluent Children Are More Prone to Tooth Decay, First Meta-Study of Its Kind Reveals

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Even with regular visits to the dentist, affluent children are more likely to experience tooth decay, according to the first meta-analysis of its kind. The systematic review suggests the corrosive effects of soda, juices, and energy drinks have eaten away at some of the privileges provided by wealth and education.   Across 65 studies from … Read more