50 interesting scientific facts about our incredible world
The world is a mysterious place, and Live Science has plenty of material for our popular Life’s Little Mysteries series, which airs every weekend. We’ve been writing mysteries since 2004, and we’ve never run out of weird stuff to cover. Each mystery contains many facts, such as which animals are evolving the fastest and why […]
Tyrannosaurus Quiz: How much do you really know about the king of dinosaurs?
The fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex is perhaps the most iconic dinosaur that ever existed. Since the first Tyrannosaurus fossil was discovered in Hell Creek, Montana, in 1902, this giant predator, with its fearsome teeth and strangely small arms, has fascinated people of all ages, starred in books and movies, including the movie Jurassic Park, and is […]
Hundreds of iceberg earthquakes shake the crumbling edge of Antarctica’s terminal glacier
Glacial earthquakes are a special type of earthquake that occur in cold, icy regions. First discovered in the Northern Hemisphere more than 20 years ago, these earthquakes occur when huge chunks of ice fall from glaciers into the ocean. Only a few have been discovered in Antarctica so far. In a new study published in […]
Are there any naturally occurring cat breeds?
Of the more than 600 million cats worldwide, less than 10% belong to any particular breed. But are these purebred cats the result of human intervention, or are some naturally occurring? The answer is more complicated than you might think. Most cat breeds have developed over the past 140 years as a result of human […]
Even AI has difficulty determining whether a text was written by an AI. Here’s why:
People and organizations are grappling with the impact of text written by AI. Teachers want to know whether their students’ work reflects their own understanding. Consumers want to know whether an ad was written by a human or a machine. Creating rules to govern the use of AI-generated content is relatively easy. Enforcing them relies […]
A fossil unearthed in New Mexico more than 100 years ago was the largest duck-billed dinosaur ever seen.
Scientists have discovered a giant type of duck-billed dinosaur that lived in what is now New Mexico about 75 million years ago. The dinosaur Athisresaurus wimani probably had a flattened head and a bony crest low on its snout, researchers found in a study. The findings, to be published in the Proceedings of the New […]
The mysterious Voynich manuscript may be a code, new research suggests
A unique code that uses playing cards and dice to convert language into glyphs produces text that is eerily similar to the glyphs in the Voynich Manuscript, new research has revealed. This discovery suggests that equivalent codes may have been used to create mysterious medieval manuscripts. The new code, called “naibe” after the name of […]
How common is the presence of extra bones in the skeleton?
It is a well-known fact that babies have more bones than adults. Newborn babies have between 275 and 300 bones, and as they grow, smaller bones fuse and harden to form larger bones, whereas most adults have only 206 bones (smaller, softer bones give the baby more flexibility to curl up in the womb and […]
Experimental mRNA therapy counteracts aging of immune cells in mice
A new mRNA therapy could rejuvenate key immune cells in the body, helping fight infections and cancer, a mouse study suggests. T cells help train other immune cells to fight disease. However, as the body ages, these T cells become less active and less responsive to threats. Additionally, the thymus gland, where T cells mature, […]
‘More Neanderthals than humans’: How DNA from long-lost ancestors influences our health today
The group traveled thousands of miles across Africa and the Middle East, finally arriving in the dark forests of the New World. They were part of a long-vanished tribe of modern humans, Homo sapiens, who were among the first to invade Europe. There, these people probably met their distant relatives – Neanderthals. Close relatives of […]