Tunicates, strange tube-like creatures in various colors, shapes and sizes, are found on ship hulls, larger seashells, pier pilings, seafloors and the backs of enormous crabs in oceans worldwide. Their basic shape is a short, barrel-like sack with two siphons or openings that filter feed water from one siphon for plankton before shooting it back through the other. About 3,000 species of tunicates worldwide reside in saltwater habitats. Despite this, there were no solid records of them in rock de ...read more
Between 1909 and 1913, a field expedition led by Berlin’s Natural History Museum dug a whopping 230 tons of late-Jurassic fossils out of Tanzania’s Tendaguru formation. While nearly 95 percent of the total fossil haul has been prepared and many specimens are on display in museums today, 46 original transport cases and crates from the expedition remained stowed away and unpacked for decades in museum storage. Now 100 years later, the cases themselves are historical artifacts. To peer inside t ...read more
Every three to four months, Mercury appears to travel backward across the sky and the internet becomes ablaze with worries about the mayhem that a Mercury retrograde has in store for us. Brands have even jumped on the bandwagon, offering Mercury retrograde merch, deals and sales.To astrologists, this planet’s vocation is communication and tech; according to Roman mythology, Mercury was the god of messages. Therefore, a Mercury in retrograde is often associated with a range of misfortunes and m ...read more
Every three to four months, Mercury appears to travel backward across the sky and the internet becomes ablaze with worries about the mayhem that a Mercury retrograde has in store for us. Brands have even jumped on the bandwagon, offering Mercury retrograde merch, deals and sales.To astrologists, this planet’s vocation is communication and tech; according to Roman mythology, Mercury was the god of messages. Therefore, a Mercury in retrograde is often associated with a range of misfortunes and m ...read more
Southern resident orcas, known for their distinct toothy grins and black-and-white marbled body, are lately sporting large, gray patches and other types of discoloration with skin lesions. And, they appear to be spreading among the population, say concerned scientists in a recent study published in PLOS ONE. Researchers often use skin disease as an indicator of health among marine species, which is why they need to know what the cause is of these mysterious patches on the killer whales. Read ...read more
Every few years, an eerie cycle plays out in the news. Headlines report the sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs/UAPs). Then, a government agency issues a denial. In 2006, employees at Chicago O’Hare International Airport described seeing an unidentified object hovering quietly near a terminal. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) dismissed it as a weather event.Then in 2014, Navy pilots reported seeing a series of spinning saucers. The Pentagon did not comment at the tim ...read more
In 1902, Albert Einstein applied to become a patent clerk at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property in Bern. Although he would have rather worked as a teacher or lab assistant, the monotonous job turned out to be a vital step in his career. While his body was busy organizing files and mulling over stacks of paperwork, his unstimulated mind was free to wander, leading him to some of his greatest scientific discoveries.This anecdote, slightly embellished over the course of its retelling, has ...read more
On the Game of Thrones scale of dragon awesomeness, the real-life Komodo dragon may seem tame, but it is anything but.Sure, it can’t fly. You can’t ride it into battle. And it doesn’t breathe fire (although if you get close enough to smell its breath, your eyes and nose may feel like they’re burning). But it is the biggest creature of its kind, and a massive, rapacious predator with claws and teeth that can rip prey to shreds. Plus, when the conditions are right (or very, very wrong), it ...read more
A new fresco discovered at Pompeii further muddies the already murky history of pizza and the age-old art of putting toppings on flatbread. Found in an atrium buried under a collapsed ceiling and layers of pumice and volcanic ash, the painting shows a round bun loaded with toppings and condiments next to a massive vessel of wine.Does this 2,000-year-old food item count as an early pizza?A statement from the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, which oversees the site, says that “Whilst it looks lik ...read more
Picture a giant, duck-billed, camel-backed, feathery omnivore that weighs a massive 7 tons.It may sound like a hybrid creation straight out of the Jurassic World franchise — but this creature actually roamed the Earth some 70 to 66 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. “Deinocheirus was a peculiar, humpbacked dinosaur with a duckbill-like skull that grew to Tyrannosaurus size,” says Yuong-Nam Lee, a professor at Seoul National University who helped describe new research o ...read more
