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Science

Gorgeous, Intricate Sea Creatures Are Actually Giant Blobs of Snot

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Larvacean

You’re welcome: Hundreds of feet below the sea surface, teeny-tiny sea creatures secrete snotty blobs from cells on their heads to build their oversized mucus dwellings. With lasers, researchers are now peering inside these impressive structures to learn the delicate craft of these deep-sea architects. These tadpole-looking sea animals are called giant larvaceans (Bathochordaeus); but despite their name, the animals are less than 4inches (10 centimeters) long, according to a statement from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Institute (MBARI). But their homes are another story: they each carry around a giant mucus bubble that can reach up to 3.3 feet (1 … Read more

SPACE: How Close Can You Get to a Black Hole?

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black hole - pixabay

Streams of gas fall to their dooms, plunging into black holes, locked away from the universe forever. In their final moments, these gassy shreds send out one last flare of light, some of the brightest emissions in the universe. These death dives are too far away to be seen directly, but astronomers have devised a new technique for detecting their panicked cries for help. They’re using the method to test our knowledge of gravity in the most extreme environments in the universe. In a new study, physicists looked at specific features of that light to figure out the closest you … Read more

STUDY: Blind People Can “See” Letters Drawn on their Brains With Electricity

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brain - pixabay

Scientists sent patterns of electricity coursing across people’s brains, coaxing their brains to see letters that weren’t there. The experiment worked in both sighted people and blind participants who had lost their sight in adulthood, according to the study, published today (May 14) in the journal Cell. Although this technology remains in its early days, implanted devices could potentially be used in the future to stimulate the brain and somewhat restore people’s vision. Known as visual prosthetics, the implants were placed on the visual cortex and then stimulated in a pattern to “trace” out shapes that the participants could then … Read more

Could Aliens Breathe Hydrogen or Helium? This Bacteria Says Yes

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yeast bacteria - deposit photos

Could aliens that breathe helium and hydrogen live on exoplanets throughout the cosmos? A new study of life on Earth suggests it’s possible. And if so, that would mean the hunt for life in the universe may need to look beyond oxygen-bathed planets to ones with seemingly inhospitable atmospheres. There is no question that an oxygen atmosphere is conducive to life — after all, it’s what we breathe on Earth. But oxygen isn’t common in the cosmos. It makes up about 0.1% of the mass of the universe. Far more common is hydrogen (92%) and helium (7%). The planet that … Read more

SCIENCE: Naked Mole Rats, CO2, and Seizures

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naked mole rat - deposit photos

Naked mole rats are supremely weird creatures — they don’t need much oxygen, and instead have seizures if they don’t get enough carbon dioxide, the chemical humans exhale when we breathe, researchers just found.The scientists found that the wrinkled rodents will even seek out areas that have been infused with the gas. But why? Turns out, due to a genetic mutation, naked mole rats lack an important switch in their brains that helps to tamp down electrical activity in the organ, and thus, prevent seizures, according to a new study published today (April 30) in the journal Current Biology. This … Read more

“Alien” Skulls Offer Clues to Life During the Collapse of the Roman Empire

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Alien Skulls

Over decades, dozens of artificially deformed “alien-like” skulls that are more than 1,000 years old have been unearthed in a cemetery in Hungary. Now, these skulls are revealing how the collapse of the Roman Empire unleashed social changes in the region. During the fifth century A.D., people in central Europe practiced skull binding, a practice that dramatically elongates head shapes. These altered skulls were so drastically deformed that some have compared them to the heads of sci-fi aliens. The fifth century was also a time of political unrest, as the Roman Empire collapsed and people in Asia and eastern Europe … Read more

Ancient “Crazy Beast” With Teeth from “Outer Space”

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Adalatherium hui

The oldest complete mammal fossil from the Southern Hemisphere is puzzling scientists with its mismatched body, strange skull holes and teeth that look like they’re “from outer space.” The new fossil, reported today (April 29) in the journal Nature, is the oldest (and only) nearly complete skeleton from an extinct group of mammals known as Gondwanatherians. This mysterious bunch lived alongside the dinosaurs on the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. They’re known from a smattering of teeth and bone fragments, a single skull and the new, remarkable skeleton of an animal whose discoverers have dubbed the “crazy beast.” The fossil is … Read more

You’ve Heard of the Big Bang? What About the “Big Bounce”?

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bounce - pixabay

In the beginning, there was an infinitely dense, tiny ball of matter. Then, it all went bang, giving rise to the atoms, molecules, stars and galaxies we see today. Or at least, that’s what we’ve been told by physicists for the past several decades. But new theoretical physics research has recently revealed a possible window into the very early universe, showing that it may not be “very early” after all. Instead it may be just the latest iteration of a bang-bounce cycle that has been going on for … well, at least once, and possibly forever. Of course, before physicists … Read more

SCIENCE: Cats Have a “Mind Control Parasite” in Hawaii

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evil cat - pixabay

Toxoplasma gondii, a “mind-controlling” parasite that causes the disease toxoplasmosis, has been found in public lands in Oahu, Hawaii for the first time, researchers have discovered. This parasite was previously unknown across Hawaii’s island landscapes, so how did it get to Oahu? It hitchhiked there in free-ranging cats, which are a non-native species and are known hosts of the parasite. Thanks, cats. Though, to be fair, cats aren’t really to blame; people are the ones who first brought cats to the island and then allowed them to roam free. Felines that were abandoned then bred in the wild and formed … Read more

Rare Bee is Half Male, Half Female (Split Down the Middle)

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gynandromorphy bee

In an un-bee-lievable discovery, scientists identified a bee that’s male on its left side and female on its right side. The rare condition is known as gynandromorphy. Researchers found the bee inside a nest collected in Panama, in a forest on Barro Colorado Island, describing it in a study published on Feb. 27 in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research. When the nest was collected, the bee was a larva enclosed in a brood cell, a chamber in the honeycomb where young bees grow, and the scientists noticed that it was a gynandromorph when it emerged as an adult. Full Story … Read more