In the 19th and 20th centuries, fossil fuels drove the global economy and politics, forming alliances, shaping economies, and inciting wars. However, in the 21st century, other natural resources have become the most valued, revealing the dark side of technology. For instance, China built an empire around technology, securing a steady supply of minerals used …
Regardless of their age, otters have a peculiar habit that sets them apart: they carry a favorite stone with them throughout their entire lives. You’ve probably seen in photos or videos how these adorable creatures swim on their backs, holding something in their front paws. Often, this can be their food or even their offspring. …
The event that occurred in 1986 at Lake Nyos in Cameroon stands as one of the most enigmatic and lethal natural disasters of the 20th century. In a matter of minutes, life around this body of water vanished in an instant, leaving behind a mystery that continues to perplex researchers to this day. Death at …
The Tyrannosaurus rex is dinosaur royalty, an iconic and instantly identifiable species – and according to a new study, as many as 1.7 billion of these beasts roamed Earth before an unfortunate meeting with an asteroid. It takes a lot of number crunching to figure this out, everything from average lifespan to sexual maturity to …
Scientists have moved one step closer to decoding the languages that animals like chimpanzees use to communicate. According to a new study published, chimpanzees have specific words, or noises, that signify different human words, and they can even be combined into “syntactic-like structures,” creating a unique chimpanzee language. The research began following anecdotal data that …
The puzzle of how dinosaurs got to be so big has finally been solved. From the Jurassic to the Cretaceous, when our ancestors were the size of voles and shrews, Supersaurus, Sauroposeidon and Argentinosaurus were shaking the Earth. Patagotitan was around 125 feet from nose to tail and weighed an estimated 57 tons – making …
Scientists have paid homage to an eye-conic villain from the Lord of the Rings in the name of a group of butterflies. While there are currently only two members of the genus Saurona, many more as-yet-undescribed species are thought to exist. One of fiction’s greatest villains is making their mark on the real world. The …
Scanning the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, scientists searched for a type of deep-sea hydrothermal vent. Instead, they spotted a rarely seen squid swimming along. Video footage shows the mesmerizing creature. Schmidt Ocean Institute, a California-based research group, was exploring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge with a remotely operated underwater vehicle on April 3, according to a …
A woman has died from H3N8 bird flu in China, the World Health Organization reported – the first known human fatality from the avian influenza strain. H3N8 is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl. It is known to infect horses, dogs and seals. It had not been …
Scientists photographed a snailfish swimming 8,336 meters below sea level near Japan, making it the deepest recorded fish ever caught on camera. Previously, the deepest recorded fish was spotted 8,178 meters down in the Mariana Trench, according to BBC News. Scientists dropped an autonomous “lander” camera into the Izu-Ogasawara Trench near Japan and filmed the …
