Why scorpions have metal in their stingers and claws. Image credit – Wikimedia Scorpions are always judged for their venom. Their distinctive curved tails and stingers make these species among the most recognisable predators in the animal world. For years, researchers have focused on the chemical properties of scorpion venoms. However, new studies demonstrate that…
Scientists scanned an Antarctic fossil and found clues to life before land animals. Image credit – Gemini Fish fossils from the Antarctic have been revealing a key stage in early animal evolution. Scientists are scanning the fossil for clues about life before the land animals. They claim that the discovery of Koharalepis jarviki can give…
Now there’s a $200k reward to stop this tiny water problem that could cost billions. Image credit – Wikimedia Boaters arriving at lakes across California may not notice anything unusual. However, this often overlooked boating habit has been posing a major threat across US lakes. Water managers are focused on a problem that is nearly…
The solid-gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun, recovered from his intact tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in 1922. Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons By the fall of 1922, Howard Carter was running on borrowed time and fumes. He had spent years sifting through Egypt’s fabled Valley of the Kings with little to show for it,…
Pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found.Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons Some days just feel like regular days, and then some days secretly aren’t. July 2009 began as one of the former for Terry Herbert. He was unemployed, he had a cheap metal detector, and permission to search a farmer’s field…
The species that outlasted empires: Porites rus, now at the centre of one of science’s most unexpected discoveries. Image Credits: Google Gemini Imagine three NBA basketball courts, side by side, at the bottom of the sea. Now, imagine that whole surface is one living coral colony, one that was already 500 years old when the…
Scientists discovered a 46-million-year-old mosquito fossil in Montana. This ancient insect was perfectly preserved in shale, not amber. Its abdomen held its last meal, confirmed by chemical tests. Image Credits: Hemoglobin-derived porphyrins preserved in a Middle Eocene blood-engorged mosquito study by PNAS Fig 1 For decades, the notion of a prehistoric mosquito entombed in a…
The discovery of Viking presence in North America, initially hinted at by local lore and confirmed by the Ingstads’ archaeological work at L’Anse aux Meadows, has been precisely dated to AD 1021. Image Credits: Evidence for European presence in the Americas in ad 1021 study/ Extended Data Fig. 5. Pictures of the wood items studied…
A forgotten document, purchased for a mere $27.50 by Harvard in 1946, has been identified as an original 1300 Magna Carta manuscript by Professor David Carpenter. (Representative Image) Image Credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, via Wikimedia Commons The most significant discoveries in history are not necessarily made using dust, ancient tombs, or even multimillion-dollar purchases….
In a stark Soviet laboratory in the 1950s, a photograph captured a scene that still unsettles viewers today. A large dog stood while the head and forelimbs of a smaller dog had been surgically grafted onto its body, both heads alive and responsive. The man behind this experiment was Vladimir Demikhov, a surgeon working at…
