In 1959, Colonel Remy Van Lierde of the Belgian Royal Air Force was on helicopter patrol. He had flown in over 400 missions, his eyes trained to spot friend and foe below. That skillset that would help him with the ensuing ordeal over the Katanga region of the Congo, for what he saw next shocked him and his copilot: A truly gargantuan snake, estimated by his account to be over 50 feet in length.  This measurement would easily have made it the largest snake alive on Earth, dwarfing today's tit ...read more

From Moon missions to new uses of biotechnology and technological developments, 2024 will be packed with science missions and anniversaries. Here are a 12 science events and missions to mark on your calendars. Space Missions and Events for 2024 For space, all eyes are on the Moon. There are various uncrewed missions planned to land on the Moon in preparation for the Artemis II missions for the global Artemis program led by NASA. Artemis aims to create a long-term human presence on the Moon event ...read more

The southern polar regions are a forbidding place. Antarctica’s harsh climate and thick ice coverage have made archaeological explorations — or explorations of any kind — exceptionally challenging. This has added a sense of mystery to various theories that humans could once have occupied the continent as a permanent civilization.Scientists, however, have given a decidedly chilly reception to the prevailing hypotheses. Let’s go through them one-by-one. Historic (and Hypothetical) MapsThi ...read more

How lazy is too lazy?  It’s easy to feel guilty for not always going the extra mile in our productivity-obsessed society. But scientists have found that a penchant for laziness may be wired into our biology: Researchers from the University of British Columbia observed that our brains must deliberately work harder to choose exercise over sedentary activities, according to a study published in Neuropsychologia in 2018. Fortunately, even the most committed couch potato pales in comparison to ...read more

One of the great mysteries of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the temporary smoothness of its hydrocarbon lakes in places, a state that sometimes last for days or weeks. Planetary geologists have come up with two potential explanations for this smoothness. The first is a lack of waves. Perhaps there just isn’t enough wind on Titan to drive waves across the entire surface of its lakes. And where there are no waves, the lakes are almost flat, varying in height by no more than a few millimet ...read more

Lots of prominent men in history excelled enough in their accomplishments that posterity has acknowledged them as “Great.” This obviously includes rulers such as Alexander the Great, Peter the Great, or lesser-known kings like Alfred and Darius. But even in modern times, non-royals who have risen to prominence in their fields have been known as Great Ones — just ask hockey legend Wayne Gretzky or classic TV funnyman Jackie Gleason.Meanwhile, it seems a shame that almost no famous or powerf ...read more

People around the world eat too much sugar. When the body is unable to process sugar effectively, leading to excess glucose in the blood, this can result in diabetes. According to the World Health Organization, diabetes became the ninth leading cause of death in 2019.Humans are not the only mammals that love sugar. Fruit bats do, too, eating up to twice their body weight in sugary fruit a day. However, unlike humans, fruit bats thrive on a sugar-rich diet. They can lower their blood sugar f ...read more

When your dog wakes you up several times a night to play “toss the stuffed toy,” you may wonder why he can’t sleep at night like everyone else in the family. Maybe he has a sleep disorder. But can non-human animals even have sleep disorders?A sleep disorder is probably not the reason your dog wants to play in the middle of the night, but yes, animals can have some of the common sleep disorders humans suffer from. Understanding sleep disorders in animals might help us treat sleep disorders ...read more

Underwater surfaces can get grimy as they accumulate dirt, algae and bacteria, a process scientists call “fouling.” But furry mammals like beavers and otters that spend most of their lives wet manage to avoid getting their fur slimy. These anti-fouling abilities come, in part, from one of fur’s unique properties — that each hair can bend and flex as an animal moves.[embedded content]Fouling on boats and machinery can be a big problem, and scientists are searching for ways to prevent it. ...read more

If gorillas strike you as intimidating, try to imagine a nearly 10-foot lookalike: that dizzying stat belongs to none other than Gigantopithecus blacki. Don’t worry about running into this colossus of an ape when you’re out and about; G. blacki went extinct long ago, but for years, researchers couldn’t decipher exactly when and why it disappeared. The only concrete traces it has left come in the form of 2000 fossilized teeth and four jawbones.But new evidence has finally answered these bur ...read more