250 million years ago, the giant ancestors of today’s salamanders swam from the area of today’s Norwegian Arctic to the west coast of Australia. This monumental trip placed it, many years later, under the brushes and picks of paleontologists who incorrectly identified it. The fos … | Continue reading
Reprinted with permission from World at Large News In South Africa, a strategy 6 years in the making to protect rhinos from poaching, as ingenious as it is dramatic, is now being implemented on the ground in the country’s game reserves and parks. Called the Rhisotope Project, it … | Continue reading
Long before antibiotics were invented, biotics—i.e. bacteria—had developed resistance to them. When researchers examined a bacterial strain called Psychrobacter discovered in 5,000-year-old layers of cave ice, they found it was resistant to 10 modern antibiotics. Yet it also show … | Continue reading
The mighty Yangtze river has experienced a dramatic improvement in ecological health halfway through a 10-year fishing moratorium. The focus of a $2.7 billion restoration project, this crucial aquatic artery had been severely degraded by decades of damming, overfishing, fragmenta … | Continue reading
A gold-standard scientific trial revealed an existing mosquito control method works not only to reduce insect numbers, but also the diagnoses of dengue fever in the area. Dengue, also known as “breakbone” fever, is a severe viral infection spread by mosquitoes that can be debilit … | Continue reading
Scientists called “astonishing” the first indisputable evidence of a new species of Spinosaurus found in over a century—uncovered in a remote area of the Sahara Desert. The newly discovered scimitar-crested dinosaur was described as a “hell heron” that fed on fish despite living … | Continue reading
Next Saturday, the 28th of February, stargazers will have the chance to spot Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all clustered together in the sky. Called a planetary alignment, they occur when the planets, which orbit atop the same horizonal line—called the ecli … | Continue reading
22 massive granite blocks that once formed the Great Lighthouse of the Alexandria have been hauled up from the bottom of city’s ancient harbor. The blocks weighed dozens of tons each and consisted of upright pillars, frames, and crossbeams called lintels that once formed the entr … | Continue reading
Amid the scorching/freezing desert of Atacama in Chile, one of South America’s largest botanical storehouses aims to protect both the wild and cultivated heritage of the country’s plant life. Called the Initihuasi Seed Bank, this genetic mothership is the central node in a nation … | Continue reading
A scientist who figured out the secret behind ancient Rome’s self-repairing concrete has recently confirmed his theory at a Pompeii building site where such concrete was in use. This marriage of theoretical and historical knowledge combined with hard evidence has inspired the ver … | Continue reading
The whiskers on an elephant’s trunk are key to its “amazing” sense of touch, reveals new research. The 1,000 hairs that cover the trunk have unusual properties that highlight where contact happens along each whisker allowing the largest land animal to grab something as small as a … | Continue reading
In January, India recorded a mini-outbreak of the Nipah virus, an often lethal disease spread by contact between humans and animals. There was little that could be done for the victims, as no specialized treatment for Nipah virus exists other than normal supportive care procedure … | Continue reading
New archaeological evidence reveals that seabird guano—nutrient-rich bird droppings—may have the driver of behind the prosperity of the most influential pre‑Incan societies. In ancient Andean cultures, fertilizer was power, said archaeologist Dr. Jacob Bongers, whose findings hig … | Continue reading
Apes share the human ability to imagine and pretend, suggests new research that included a series of tea party experiments. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, called it the first study to show the capacity for pretending is not unique to mankind. They … | Continue reading
The reproductive spores of a moss species were able to somehow survive the vacuum of space during a 9-month stint outside the International Space Station. In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum, life, uh, finds a way. Physcomitrella patens is known as a hardy pioneer species of s … | Continue reading
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has topped itself once again, delivering the confirmation of a bright galaxy that existed a mere 280 million years after the Big Bang; so close to the beginning of the universe as we understand. GNN reported on the last such discovery, a galaxy 3 … | Continue reading
If a physician needs to see what’s gone wrong inside a human body, it’s easy enough to order an ultrasound scan. But if the structural engineer wants to do the same in a block of concrete, his options are of limited effectiveness. The range of materials that concrete contains, su … | Continue reading
In a story that proves you don’t have to be a star to find a star, astronomers are excited to train the next generation of telescopes at an Earth-like exoplanet discovered by a citizen scientist. Alexander Venner, currently studying studying at the Max Planck Institute for Astron … | Continue reading
It’s been 113 years since the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic sank, and engineers still have hopes of someday creating unsinkable ships. None more so than a team at the University of Rochester that recently present a new “superhydrophobic” design that could lead to more resilient ships, flo … | Continue reading
In a new image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the dying breaths of the star at the heart of the famous Helix Nebula are exposed in wonder and radiance. Imaged many times by previous space telescopes, including Hubble and Spitzer, the Helix Nebula is loved for its simila … | Continue reading
This is the American kestrel; a sight to behold. Sporting a back emblazoned with pheasant rust and bars of black, supporting wings of battleship grey tipped with white dots like a moth’s, and streaks of murderous black down its eyes, the smallest of the New World falcons is a tre … | Continue reading
Do you love bluebirds, finches, and chickadees? Why not count birds in your community with your kids and friends during the Great Backyard Bird Count in 2026. Our mental health is nurtured by nature—and it will take under an hour to give back to what birds give us. The annual Gre … | Continue reading
In what is being called a major milestone in American cancer research and treatment, 5-year survival rates averaged across all cancers have never been higher, with 7-in-10 cancer patients living past 5 years post-diagnosis. This average was pumped up by large survival rate increa … | Continue reading
From a return of humans to Lunar orbit, to Japan’s first crack at Mars, the trend of humans spending more and more time and money on and in space is set to continue in 2026. Here are a few of the events to look forward to. Artemis II and a return to the Moon Since […] The post 4 … | Continue reading
South Korean engineers have developed a soft, shirt-like exoskeleton to give individuals with degenerative muscle conditions more mobility and independence. Costing thousands less than hard, motor-driven exoskeletons, and weighing less than 2 pounds, it’s a game-changing innovati … | Continue reading
A plant-lover who snapped a photo of an interesting shrub he found on a trip to the Outback inadvertently proved that it wasn’t, in fact, extinct, something which scientists had presumed. With 60 years having passed without a confirmed sighting of the plant, it was chalked up as … | Continue reading
A team of Chinese scientists recently conducted a DNA analysis and autopsy of a 13th century Song Dynasty nobleman who was embalmed not unlike an ancient Egyptian. The quality of the preservation was such that, if the reader can bear the thought, his mortal remains emitted a plea … | Continue reading
When a significant coral bleaching event swept across the reefs of Mauritius last summer, one small group of corals remained as vibrant as ever. While neighboring wild reefs experienced bleaching rates as high as 80%, Dr. Nadeem Nazurally’s reefs experienced just as much, and oft … | Continue reading
A joint archaeological mission from China and Uzbekistan has uncovered the walls of an important Silk Road city. After 2 years of excavations, the team has discovered the foundations of palaces, city gates, residential buildings, the layout of streets, and craft workshops in a se … | Continue reading
Between 2022 and 2023, scientists in Saudi Arabia began a survey of over 1,000 caves, hoping to find preserved remains of ancient animals to infer modern rewilding strategies. Whatever modest results they might have allowed themselves to hope for, they almost certainly would not … | Continue reading
Over the decades, a glacier in Central Asia appears to have been growing when almost every other glacier on Earth has been shrinking. Now, a scientific expedition has recovered ice cores containing 30,000 years of frozen water in the hopes that somewhere inside lies some indicati … | Continue reading
If you’re a billionaire looking to jump into philanthropy there are hundreds of different causes to support. Fans of the seemingly always-cash-strapped NASA will certainly be cheering after news that a former Google CEO is going to foot the bill for a modern, updated replacement … | Continue reading
Scientists identified traces of a poison from the South African plant gifbol on Stone Age arrowheads dating back 60,000 years, making it the oldest known arrow poison discovered anywhere in the world. The researchers say the find shows that people in southern Africa had already d … | Continue reading
A Bangladeshi pharma company will soon release a generic version of an expensive drug for cystic fibrosis that will allow hundreds of patients worldwide to access treatment. The only pharmaceutical option available for cystic fibrosis has for years been a combination treatment ca … | Continue reading
Clever canines that have a talent for learning vocabulary can pick up new words by simply overhearing their handlers’ conversations, say scientists. Parents and dog owners know that some words should not be spoken, but only spelled, to prevent small ears from eavesdropping on the … | Continue reading
Remains of an early human ancestor from a critically important period in our evolutionary history have been found in Morocco. Dated back 700,000 years using precise geo-magnetic methods, the assemblage of jawbones and teeth may come from the epoch during which African and Eurasia … | Continue reading
Birds-of-paradise have long dazzled us with their incredibly vibrant and varied plumage, but researchers studying the group have recently made an even more incredible discovery. Plumage on 37 of 45 birds-of-paradise species emit biofluorescence meaning molecules inside the feathe … | Continue reading
Tiny plants, like moss, are easy to overlook. They’re often as small as an eyelash, and they tend to grow on the ground in dark, wet places. But these small plants sometimes turn out to be big clues in forensic cases. A team of scientists learned that firsthand in 2013, when they … | Continue reading
An Italian-Egyptian archaeological mission has finally excavated a temple for the worship of the sun after it was identified over 100 years ago. It’s only one of two sun temples that have been definitively identified, and dates to the reign of King Nyuserre, the sixth ruler of th … | Continue reading
What can you do if you want to test a dam, railway line, submersible, or a space capsule’s resistance to gravitational force without risking the destruction of it in the process? Well now, you can take a scale model to Zhejiang University in China, where the CHIEF1900 gravitation … | Continue reading
Canadian researchers have figured out how plants make a rare natural substance—mitraphylline—with its potential for fighting cancer and becoming a sustainable new medicine. Mitraphylline is part of a small and unusual family of plant alkaloids, molecules that are defined by their … | Continue reading
University researchers in Texas and Korea have collaborated to developed an eco-friendly water purifier that captures—and destroys—toxic “forever chemicals” (PFAS) more than 1,000 times better than current methods. Their study marks a major milestone in addressing one of the worl … | Continue reading
An exoplanet located 2,000 light years from Earth is so unusual it’s given astronomers the idea that it could be a totally new type of object. That’s because it’s shaped like a lemon, with a small tip just like the fruit has, and a free-floating carbon atmosphere where rain might … | Continue reading
Burrowing bees generally prefer to make their nests in the open, but some 20,000 years ago their ancestors lived in a cave where they used the bones of prey animals rather than soft soil. The groundbreaking discovery was made in a Caribbean cave that narrowly escaped being turned … | Continue reading
A microscopic ‘Christmas tree’ is a seasonal highlight of a remarkable science project that found eerie comparisons between the vast and the tiny. Curated by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the series of pairings reveal stunning connections between the vast universe and the mic … | Continue reading
Researchers in Sweden found a link between eating more high-fat cream and high-fat cheeses and a lower risk of developing dementia. People who consumed 20 grams or more of high-fat cream daily had a 16% lower risk of dementia than those who consumed none. People who ate 50 grams … | Continue reading
In a pair of groundbreaking studies, scientists replicated a time-consuming, laboratory-based, cancer therapy within myeloma patients’ own bodies. If standardized, such an advancement would allow for one of the most successful non-chemo cancer treatments to be done both faster an … | Continue reading
Christmas 2025 is better and brighter for one family whose daughter is on the mend from a previously untreatable form of childhood cancer. Christmas 2024 saw then-5-year-old Bryn Ailinger isolated in a child cancer ward, having been diagnosed with precursor B-cell acute lymphobla … | Continue reading