Scientists

MIT Scientists Design a ‘Flying Saucer’ That Could Float Across The Moon

by

Researchers have imagined a lightweight, flying saucer-style rover that can float across the surface of the Moon and other airless planetary surfaces such as asteroids. The ‘flying saucer’ would be powered by the electric field that builds up due to direct exposure to the Sun and its surrounding plasma. In the absence of an atmosphere, this … Read more

Rocket scientists aren’t any smarter than the rest of us, science says

by

The phrase “It’s not rocket science” is commonly used to describe tasks that aren’t difficult or complicated. But are rocket scientists really smarter than everyone else? That was a vital question that researchers sought to answer in a new study published in the annual light-hearted Christmas issue of the high-profile medical journal BMJ; the study … Read more

The Famous Fossils Scientists Got Incredibly Wrong

by

We sort of take for granted the depictions of prehistoric beasties illustrated in the books of our childhood. But piecing together Earth’s murky past is a lot harder than it sounds.   Scientists have to rely on fragmentary bones, weathered footprints, impressions in rock – these don’t always capture the fine details of the complex, … Read more

Scientists Have Identified The Driving Force Behind Your Darkest Impulses

by

Psychologists call it the dark triad: an intersection of three of the most malevolent tendencies of human nature – psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. But the truth goes deeper, and darker. There’s also egoism, sadism, spitefulness, and more. And behind this rogues gallery of all our worst inclinations on the surface, a central, common core of … Read more

Scientists Identify a Previously Unknown Type of Storm, Called an ‘Atmospheric Lake’

by

A new type of weather condition has been observed, existing primarily in one particular part of the world: compact, slow-moving, moisture-rich pools. Researchers are calling these ‘atmospheric lakes’.   This unique type of storm occurs over the western Indian Ocean and moves towards Africa. Unlike most storms – created by a vortex – the lakes … Read more

Scientists Unearth a Ginormous Triassic Sea Monster That Once Roamed The ‘Superocean’

by

A sea monster that lived during the early dinosaur age is so unexpectedly colossal, it reveals that its kind grew to gigantic sizes extremely quickly, evolutionarily speaking at least.    The discovery suggests that such ichthyosaurs – a group of fish-shaped marine reptiles that inhabited the dinosaur-era seas – grew to enormous sizes in a span of only 2.5 … Read more

Alien Life Could Theoretically Survive Within Venus’s Clouds, Scientists Say

by

With an atmosphere acidic enough to strip the skin from your bones, Venus is far from what we might imagine as hospitable. But a new study backs up the idea that cocoons of life could potentially exist in the planet’s corrosive clouds.   Researchers have identified a chemical pathway through which the droplets of sulfuric … Read more

When did scientists first warn humanity about climate change?

by

Climate change warnings are coming thick and fast from scientists; thousands have signed a paper stating that ignoring climate change would yield “untold suffering” for humanity, and more than 99% of scientific papers agree that humans are the cause. But climate change wasn’t always on everyone’s radar. So when did humans first become aware of climate change and the … Read more

Scientists Just Identified a Brand New Muscle Layer in The Human Jaw

by

It turns out there are still exciting new discoveries to be made in a field as well-studied as human anatomy: researchers have confirmed the existence of a layer of muscle in the human jaw that has until now eluded anatomists.   This new muscle is a deeper, third section of the masseter muscle. It’s the most prominent … Read more