We know we got here from somewhere, but who would have suspected it was by way of a fish that used electrical currents to hunt and communicate and locate itself?
Astronomers have for the first time observed a nova-producing system turn into a supernova, a finding that indicates the universe has more than one way to create a nova. A normal Type Ia supernova is a rare event, occurring perhaps once or twice every century. The type of supernova observed by a team of astronomers…
A common and ancient plant dye could replace cobalt and help deliver greener lithium-ion batteries, according to an American study. Purpurin, an extract of the common Madder plant, turns out to have the right characteristics to use as a cathode, according to research led by The City College of New York (along with Rice University…
The human population is growing at such a staggering rate that we are organizing ourselves more like ant supercolonies, with new research finding that we have more in common now with some ants than we do with our closest living animal kingdom relatives. The new study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, points out that…
WTF Evolution? is a website honoring natural selection’s most baffling creations.
If we’re going to get science policy right, it’s really important for us to study the economic benefit of open access and not accept the arguments of incumbents. Existing media companies claim that they need ever stronger and longer copyright protection and new, draconian laws to protect them, and meanwhile, new free ecosystems, like the…
Thawing permafrost covering almost a quarter of the northern hemisphere could “significantly amplify global warming” at a time when the world is already struggling to reign in rising greenhouse gases, a U.N. report said. Permafrost usually thaws on the surface during summertime, but now scientists say thaws reach up to 10 feet deep due to…