Although the moon looks quite spherical from the ground, it is flatter at its poles and wider at its equator, a trait known as an equatorial bulge. This characteristic is common; it’s usually caused by an object’s rotation around its axis. However, it’s been noted that the moon’s bulge is about 20 times larger than it should be given its rotational rate of once per month. Outlined in a paper published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, rese ...read more

We all know that individuals fight over potential love interests. Just think of Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) scuffling, rather impotently, over Bridget Jones in a fountain. But you might be surprised to hear that the fierce rivalry continues behind the scenes — in the form of sperm competition. This is when the sperm of two or more males compete inside the reproductive tract of a female, to fertilize the eggs, something that is widespread in the animal kingdo ...read more

Are you planning an adventure vacation packed with new experiences? Thinking about doing something that few people have ever done, like climbing Mt Everest? Well, according to this study, these experiences may not be all they're cracked up to be. These researchers found that "participants thoroughly enjoyed having experiences that were superior to those had by their peers, but that having had such experiences spoiled their subsequent social interactions and ultimately left them feeling wors ...read more

When it comes to interesting cephalopod sex lives, squid seem to have drawn the short straw. Argonauts, their cousins, keep things interesting with swimming, detachable penises. Giant Pacific Octopus mating involves several hours of rough, squishy grabbing action that would make Toshio Maeda blush. But squid just get a quick hello, a few colorful flashes, and second or two of perfunctory sperm delivery—or so it would seem. A new study suggests that for all they lack in ...read more

Together, you can participate in any of these projects centered around the heart, love and care. Cheers! The SciStarter Team Health eHeart Study  Prefer to stay inside? Join 1 million participants in the Health eHeart Study to join the fight against heart disease. Get started! Location: Online Only   Beats Per Life What is the secret to a long life? Lots ...read more

Ants that hunt termites can risk getting grievously injured in battle, but that doesn't mean its the end of the line. In a newly published study, scientists observed ant medics caring for their wounded comrades, which may be the first scientifically documented example of such medical care in the animal kingdom outside humanity. The African ant Megaponera analis specializes in hunting termites. After scouts of this ant species find termite feeding sites, the scouts lead columns of 200 t ...read more

One annoyance of ordering items from the internet is waiting for delivery. That's why many companies are set on making sure you get your items as quickly as possible — like Amazon Prime's free two-day shipping. But shipping, especially fast, comes at an environmental cost. Previous studies have shown that moving goods by conventional aircraft is four times more carbon-intensive than by truck, which is 10 times more carbon-intensive than rail. Since many companies including Amazon, UP ...read more

Mining bitcoin is not a task for your average Joe. As far back as 2014, researchers estimated that profitable bitcoin mining was out of the reach of commercial hardware. The increasing difficulty of solving the equations that yield the digital currency means that it takes an entire server farm today to make it worth it. And you also might have to move to Iceland. Hot Water, Cold Air The tiny island country has become a hotbed of bitcoin activity because it's got an excess of two of the ...read more

If you’re a fan of drone technology or a drone pilot yourself, it’s easy to think the tech is mainstream. It's not. And it turns out drone owners are just a small sliver of Americans — just 8 percent own a flying drone, according to a December 2017 study from Pew Research Center. Even though many people don’t own drones, almost 60 percent have seen someone operating one. As of January, more than 1 million people have registered as drone owners with the FAA. That include ...read more

Coprolites, or fossilized dung, double as ecological time capsules, preserving an incredible collection of information about past ecosystems. In Middle Earth (a.k.a. New Zealand) researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for DNA (ACAD) and Landcare Research NZ reconstructed a pre-civilization community using a bird dung time machine. Dung samples were amassed from numerous sites across the continent. The donors: four species of ratite birds including the extinct gian ...read more