The woolly rhinoceros, which roamed northern Eurasia for millions of years, is one of the most iconic extinct megafauna. The formidable thick-skinned, long-furred beast occupied the mammoth steppe, a cold-dry grassland biome that existed during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, roughly 10,000 years ago the woolly rhinoceros vanished. Scientists have been able to identify mummified carcasses of these animals, along with bone fragments, and several human cave paintings in Europe and Asia fe ...read more

A scholarly article once proposed that the griffin — a mythological beast with a raptor’s head, a lion’s body, and eagle’s wings — was created by ancient prospectors stumbling upon a dinosaur fossil while searching for gold in Central Asia.But something about the argument didn’t feel right to Mark Witton, a paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth in England, who with a colleague, now debunked the study over 30 years later in an Interdisciplinary Science Reviews article.The Pop ...read more

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is one of the most famous and spectacular sights in the Solar Systems. Wider than the diameter of the Earth, the spot is a giant vortex of winds up to 400 kilometers per hour. Its reddish color probably comes from complex organic molecules that form in its upper atmosphere, although nobody is quite sure.The Spot may have first been seen by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini in 1665 and then observed throughout his life until his death in 1712. But after that somet ...read more

The space environment is harsh and full of extreme radiation. Scientists designing spacecraft and satellites need materials that can withstand these conditions.In a paper published in January 2024, my team of materials researchers demonstrated that a next-generation semiconductor material called metal-halide perovskite can actually recover and heal itself from radiation damage.Metal-halide perovskites are a class of materials discovered in 1839 that are found abundantly in Earth’s crust. They ...read more

Every time we speak, our brains have to meticulously coordinate the movements of some 100 muscles in the face, mouth, tongue, lips, and vocal cords. Those muscles then have to fire almost instantaneously to produce the right sounds. Speech is complicated, to say the least — if something goes wrong at any point between the first neural signals and the last muscular contractions, it may result in difficulty speaking, or a disorder known as dysarthria.“When you have an interruption in that path ...read more

It takes a lot of fuel to conquer a large part of two continents by horseback. But the Mongolians had been developing a strong culinary tradition they could carry along with them for roughly 2,000 years before they swept across much of Eurasia.Now, new research gives us a closer look at what kinds of foods the nomadic pastoralists of the Mongolian steppe were eating around 700 B.C.E. by examining the protein residues left in ancient cauldrons — and the findings are a little bloody.“This prac ...read more

On Earth, you can look up at night and see the Moon shining bright from hundreds of thousands of miles away. But if you went to Venus, that wouldn’t be the case. Not every planet has a moon – so why do some planets have several moons, while others have none?I’m a physics instructor who has followed the current theories that describe why some planets have moons and some don’t.First, a moon is called a natural satellite. Astronomers refer to satellites as objects in space that orbit larger ...read more

Earlier this year, the Earth was hit by the most intense geomagnetic storms in twenty years. The most obvious consequences of the storm were the beautiful displays of aurora in the northern and southern hemispheres at unusual latitudes. In the following days, the internet was ablaze with these images.But the storm also had more insidious consequences for the world’s rapidly growing population of satellites. Physicists have long known that these storms can fry circuits, interrupt communication ...read more

In the relentless pursuit of a slimmer figure, quick-fix weight loss solutions like "Oat-Zempic" are gaining popularity, especially on social media platforms like TikTok. Promising speedy results, concoctions like Oat-Zempic, made with oats, water, and lime juice, appeal to those eager for swift changes.However, the allure of rapid weight loss is often overshadowed by significant health risks and oftentimes misleading claims. Here’s why recipes like Oat-Zempic should also be taken with a grain ...read more

As the weather warms, people spend more time outdoors, going to barbecues, beaches and ballgames. But summer isn’t just the season of baseball and outdoor festivals – it’s also lightning season.Each year in the United States, lightning strikes around 37 million times. It kills 21 people a year in the U.S. on average.For as often as lightning occurs – there are only a few days each year nationwide without lightning– there are still a lot of misunderstandings about nature’s largest spa ...read more