Scientists have ‘awakened’ ancient microorganisms from permafrost and found that they soon started producing large amounts of CO2
As Arctic summers get longer, microorganisms that have been suspended in permafrost for up to 40,000 years could “wake up” and start emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases, a new study suggests. Under future climate conditions, microorganisms that have been dormant since the last ice age (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) could take just […]
What would have happened if Christopher Columbus had never reached America?
Christopher Columbus sailed west in 1492, trying to find a new route to China and South Asia, but ran into a major obstacle: the Americas, and landed in the Caribbean. Columbus was not the first European to reach the Western Hemisphere. The Vikings landed on Newfoundland about 500 years ago. However, the Vikings did not […]
Physicists have proven the effectiveness of 65-year-old theory of relativity by making objects appear to move at the speed of light
Scientists used ultrafast laser pulses and a special camera to simulate an optical illusion that appears to contradict Einstein’s special theory of relativity. One of the consequences of special relativity is that fast-moving objects appear shorter in the direction of their movement. This is a phenomenon known as Lorentz contraction. This effect has been indirectly […]
Which planet is the youngest and oldest in our solar system?
About 4.6 billion years ago, the celestial clouds collapsed, paving the way for the formation of the solar system. After that, a nebula with a strong gravitational pull was formed, and the birth of the sun began. But subsequent details leave room for debate as to which planet formed first. So what do we know […]
Hidden supercharger ‘thermostat’ could be responsible for overcompensating for global climate change
The Earth may respond to the large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) humans are pumping into the atmosphere by “over-correcting” the imbalance, potentially allowing the next ice age to arrive on schedule rather than tens of thousands of years late as previously predicted. This is due to a newly discovered ‘thermostat’ that is so efficient […]
Einstein’s theory of relativity could rewrite important rules about what kinds of planets are habitable
Planets around white dwarfs could provide long-term homes for extraterrestrial life, but they suffer from deadly overheating problems. Who will save them? According to new research, it’s none other than Albert Einstein. White dwarfs are compact remnants of dead Sun-like stars. They are scattered throughout the universe, and the Milky Way alone is home to […]
Damages from extreme weather events will exceed $100 billion by June, breaking US record
Data shows that the first half of 2025 was the costliest extreme weather event on record, even when accounting for inflation. This is also due to some extraordinary events, such as the Los Angeles wildfires. But the number of natural disasters this winter was also “extraordinary,” Paul Ulrich, a professor of regional climate modeling at […]
Ancient Roman tombstones found under underbrush in New Orleans garden
One day, as the couple was mowing the underbrush in their New Orleans garden, they discovered something completely unexpected. It was a Roman tombstone that once marked the grave of a soldier who lived half a world away in the second century. Study of an unlikely object shows it is real, and its discovery hints […]
A 60-metre-tall scorpion statue mound in Mexico could coincide with the summer solstice
Giant scorpion-shaped mounds built centuries ago in Mexico may coincide with the winter and summer solstices, a new study has found. Archaeologists recorded the 205-foot-long (62.5-meter) mound in 2014 while investigating a prehistoric irrigation system in the Tehuacán Valley, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City. Several artifacts and offerings were discovered at […]
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is losing water ‘like a fire hose’ at full speed – and it’s ‘rewriting what we thought we knew’ about alien star systems
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS began spraying water “like a fire hose” before it approached the sun, according to a recent study. Researchers observed comets scattering water in an unusually early step in a discovery that sheds light on how the building blocks of life are distributed in other planetary systems. Initial observations from the James Webb […]