Science

The tropical storm zone where lightning keeps returning after dark. Image credit – Gemini Not all parts of the Earth’s surface are equally exposed to storms. Some areas of the planet have developed such high levels of activity that they are called lightning hotspots. These are places where storms are constantly formed under the same…

Museum drawers have revealed the fossilised remains of extinct giant echidnas, some as large as dogs. Image Credit: Twentieth century occurrence of the Long-Beaked Echidna Zaglossus bruijnii in the Kimberley region of Australia Study Fig 2 Hidden in the silent, air-conditioned backrooms of museums lie tales that have waited a hundred years to be told….

A remarkable discovery in Alberta’s Dinosaur Provincial Park has unearthed a near-complete juvenile hadrosaur, complete with mummified skin. This rare find, believed to be 75 million years old, offers unprecedented insights into dinosaur growth. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons It is said that the Alberta Badlands can be considered an extremely dusty and silent place wherein…

In 1861, a Bavarian quarry yielded a fossilised feather, soon followed by the Archaeopteryx skeleton, a creature with bird and dinosaur traits. Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons Imagine yourself in an open-air quarry in Bavaria, breaking open a slab of finely grained limestone, and seeing a beautifully preserved feather inside. This very thing happened at Solnhofen…

Miners at North Dakota’s Freedom Mine unearthed a remarkably complete mammoth fossil in December 2023. Image Credits: North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources It would seem that the links that one can draw between our Stone Age ancestors and us do not spring forth from the scientific world holding paintbrushes and microscopes, but instead come…

Miners in Bernissart, Belgium, found a massive clay deposit in 1878. This deposit contained numerous Iguanodon skeletons. The discovery provided complete skeletons for the first time. Image Credits: Aimé Rutot (museum curator in 1882, geologist), via Wikimedia Commons Deep below the Belgian village of Bernissart, a team of coal miners working at depths greater than…

The surprising way scientists are finding Roman ruins beneath the sea. Image credit – Wikimedia A Roman city can disappear from common eyes yet not be wiped out entirely. Roads and other structural features can leave behind faint signals underneath the water, which have been present there for centuries, sculpted by sedimentation, tide levels, and…

James Watson (Image: Wikipedia) Science is often viewed as a world of complex theories, difficult equations and highly technical discoveries. Yet many of the greatest breakthroughs in history started with a surprisingly simple idea. This approach is neatly summed up in a single quote from James Watson, who said, “Worrying about complications before ruling out…

Archaeologists investigating Wogan Cavern beneath Pembroke Castle in Wales say the site could become one of Britain’s most important prehistoric discoveries. Hidden below the 11th-century castle, the cave has revealed evidence of human and animal activity dating back more than 100,000 years. Researchers have uncovered stone tools alongside bones from mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses,…

Norbert Wiener was one of the most unusual mathematicians of the 20th century: a child prodigy who graduated from Tufts at 14, earned a Harvard PhD at 18, and spent most of his career at MIT. During World War II, his work on anti-aircraft fire-control problems helped lead him to the idea of cybernetics, the…