Planet Earth

An aerial view of the latest eruption of an underwater volcano near Iwo Jima.

Japan's new volcanic island has erupted again — and the dramatic explosion was caught on camera

By Sascha Pare published

An underwater volcano that gave birth to a new island off Japan's Iwo Jima island has erupted again, sending huge plumes of ash and smoke into the sky in footage released by Japan's Coast Guard.

Volcanos
A hyrdothermal vent spewing plumes of liquid into the water.

Enormous hydrothermal vent field with ancient, 50-foot tall chimneys discovered near underwater volcano

By Sascha Pare published

A 2,000-foot-long hydrothermal field teeming with life and giant chimneys spouting boiling water has been discovered next to an underwater volcano off the coast of Ecuador.

Volcanos
VIEW MORE

Space

Artistic rendering of the possible view from LHS 3154b towards its low mass host star. Given its large mass, LHS 3154b probably has a Neptune-like composition.

Enormous planet discovered around tiny star could break our understanding of solar system formation

By Joanna Thompson published

The massive planet LHS 3154b orbits a star much smaller than Earth's sun, and its discovery could upend everything we think we know about how solar systems form.

Exoplanets
The sample sent to the UK's Natural History Museum is just a small slice of the regolith collected from Bennu.

Sample of 'potentially hazardous' asteroid Bennu, which may contain the seeds of life, arrives in UK for analysis

By Ben Turner published

A sample from the asteroid Bennu, collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission, has arrived at London's Natural History Museum for analysis. Scientists are optimistic that it could contain the seeds of life.

Space Exploration
VIEW MORE

Health

a woman sits on a bench holding a baby wrapped in a blanket, whose face is turned from the camera

Kids under 5 with HIV are dying at high rates. Here's why.

By Nicoletta Lanese published

Among people on HIV meds, young children are the likeliest to die, often due to late diagnosis or treatment interruptions.

Hiv
This aerial photograph taken on September 5, 2022 shows flooded residential areas after heavy monsoon rains in Dera Allah Yar, Balochistan province in Pakistan.

Climate change could upend fight against malaria, WHO warns

By Nicoletta Lanese published

Malaria cases rose in 2022, in part due to climate change-related extreme weather events.

Viruses, Infections & Disease
Colorful micrograph image showing nerve fibers in green that are forming synaptic connections with sensory cells in blue in the cochlea of the ear

Tinnitus may stem from nerve damage not detectable on hearing tests

By Emily Cooke published

People with tinnitus may be wrongly classed as having "normal hearing" because standard tests don't detect the condition's true cause, a new study suggests.

Neuroscience
VIEW MORE

Animals

A colony of Chinstrap penguins.

Weird Chinstrap penguins sleep over 10,000 times a day for just 4 seconds at a time

By Ben Turner published

The penguins accrue 11 hours of cumulative sleep a day from a bizarre adaptation that enables them to doze as they guard their nests.

Birds
A kangaroo stands chest-deep in water.

Kangaroos might try to drown your dog. Here's why.

By Sascha Pare published

Footage of a kangaroo attempting to drown a dog in a river in Australia went viral online, but this isn't the first time a marsupial has pulled this trick.

Land Mammals
A small squid swims beside a marine plant

Adorable, newfound pygmy squid species named after Japanese forest fairies

By Elise Poore published

Two new species of pygmy squid have been discovered off Okinawa and named after mythical creatures.

Squids
VIEW MORE

Human Behavior

'Yeti hair' found in Himalayas is actually from a horse, BBC series reveals

By Patrick Pester published

DNA from a supposed Abominable Snowman actually came from a horse, but that doesn't mean stories of the Yeti passed on by local people aren't important.

Conspiracies & Paranormal
The mummified remains of what appears to be a small mermaid

Haunting 'mermaid' mummy from Japan is a gruesome monkey-fish hybrid with 'dragon claws,' new scans reveal

By Harry Baker published

Scientists have scanned the mummified remains of a supposed "mermaid" from Japan. The initial results suggest it is a horrifying mix of fish, monkey and lizard parts.

Conspiracies & Paranormal
Black and white photo of an empty wooden attic with a metal folding chair in the center.

Are ghosts real?

By Benjamin Radford last updated

One difficulty in scientifically evaluating is ghost are real is the surprisingly wide variety of phenomena attributed to ghosts.

Conspiracies & Paranormal
VIEW MORE

Physics & Mathematics

An artist's illustration of electric charge.

Electricity flows like water in 'strange metals,' and physicists don't know why

By Ben Turner published

A weird phenomenon in which electricity flows like water was spotted in a nanowire made of "strange metal" — a bizarre metal phase that has stumped physicists for 40 years.

Physics & Mathematics
The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.

Large Hadron Collider could be generating dark matter in its particle jets

By Keith Cooper published

If dark matter is made from "dark" versions of the basic building blocks of ordinary matter, the world's largest particle accelerator should be able to pin it down, a new study suggests.

Dark Matter
Artist's impression composed of a star with a disc around it (a Be "vampire" star; foreground) and its companion star that has been stripped of its outer parts (background).

'Vampire' stars that bleed their companions dry may have a hidden accomplice, new study reveals

By Anna Demming published

Scientists suspect that type-Be 'vampire' stars grow by preying on their smaller companions. New research suggests there may be an important third player in these systems.

Physics & Mathematics
VIEW MORE

Chemistry

Large iceberg floating in the arctic sea

Why does ice float?

By Hannah Loss published

Why does ice float in water, instead of sinking to the bottom? It has to do with water's density and molecular structure.

Chemistry
A wispy blue cloud of molecular gas glows from the light of distant stars in this James Webb Space Telescope image

Building blocks of life may have formed on dust in the cold vacuum of space

By Paul Sutter published

Far from any galaxy, icy grains of dust in deep space may be able to form organic molecules, a new preprint study finds.

Chemistry
Colorful depiction of atoms.

Scientists get rare glimpse of 'nesting doll' isotope nitrogen-9

By Ben Turner published

With five more protons than should be stable, the newly discovered nitrogen-9 isotope sits right on the borderline of physical possibility.

Chemistry
VIEW MORE

Tech

Impression of a rover on the surface of Mars.

Chinese scientists build robo-chemist that can extract oxygen from water on Mars

By Keumars Afifi-Sabet published

The robot was tested in a simulated Martian environment, and can one day be used to aid humanity's survival on the Red Planet.

Artificial Intelligence
A woman wearing augmented reality smart glasses at night

Smart glasses could boost privacy by swapping cameras for this 100-year-old technology

By Keumars Afifi-Sabet published

Researchers have built a tool called PoseSonic that can accurately track a glasses wearer's upper body movements.

Tech
An image montage of the soft robotic hand holding a marker pen and a water bottle.

Robot hand exceptionally 'human-like' thanks to new 3D printing technique

By Ben Turner published

The hand was printed using a technique called slow-curing, which gives plastics more time to set and makes them more durable.

Robotics
VIEW MORE