EXPLAINED: Science | Rare Historical Photos

How Jumping Spiders See Colour and Judge Distance With Four Pairs of Unmoving Eyes

The eye that moves without movingMost animals scan a scene by moving their heads or rotating their eyeballs. A jumping spider does neither. Its two large principal eyes, the forward-facing pair that give it that unnervingly alert expression, are fixed tubes. The lenses cannot swivel. What moves instead is the…

Times Life · Sep 26

Science says some sea otters rarely use rocks while others use them for almost every meal, their teeth may explain why

Sea otters survive largely on marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, crabs, clams, mussels and snails. Getting to that food, however, isn't always easy. Many of these animals are protected by tough shells or hard exoskeletons that can withstand substantial force, leaving otters with the challenge of breaking through these…

The Economic Times · Sep 22

Kamil Crater Meteorite Haul: Google Earth spot rewrites impact models; thousands of iron fragments mapped

In a remarkable find, an Italian scientist uncovered a wheel-like formation in Egypt's Sahara desert, leading to the revelation of the well-preserved Kamil Crater. Researchers subsequently unearthed thousands of iron meteorite fragments scattered around this impact zone. Thanks to the desert's dry conditions, the crater remains well-preserved, providing significant insights…

The Times of India · Sep 20

Science says trees can send chemical warnings and SOS signals through the air, what plants do when danger strikes

The popular idea of trees sending messages to one another through a forest is fascinating, but scientists caution against oversimplifying the process. VOC signalling can vary widely depending on the plant species, environmental conditions, chemical concentration, wind patterns and the specific properties of the compounds involved.

The Economic Times · Sep 3

In 2021, Berlin teams studied 166 naked mole-rats and found they recognised colony-specific vocal dialects; cross-fostered pups learned the dialect of their new colony

Naked mole-rats possess distinct vocal dialects learned from their colony members. Researchers found these animals respond more to their own colony's chirps. Cross-fostered pups adopted the dialect of their new colony within months. Colony dialect consistency decreased significantly after the queen's death. This vocal learning places naked mole-rats among a…

The Economic Times · Sep 2

What Your Deep Sleep Cycles Reveal About Brain Health, Memory, and Cognitive Aging

The Brain's Cleaning Shift Only Runs at NightDuring deep sleep, specifically the slow-wave stage that dominates the first half of the night, your brain activates a waste-clearance system called the glymphatic network. Cerebrospinal fluid pulses through channels around your neurons, flushing out metabolic byproducts that build up during waking hours.…

Times Life · Sep 2

India's Mangroves Store More Carbon Than Rainforests, And Coastal Deforestation Is Erasing Them Fast

The numbers that should change how you think about mangrovesA single hectare of mangrove forest stores up to 1,000 tonnes of carbon in its soil, roughly four to five times more than a comparable patch of tropical rainforest. The reason is structural. Mangroves grow at the edge of land and…

Times Life · Sep 1

Federal Autism Panel Raised Vaccines the Same Day Researchers Published the Largest Molecular Map of Autism

A federal autism panel adopted a new research plan amid vaccine claims, the same day UCSF published the largest molecular map of autism.

Medical Daily · Aug 30

What Your Dog's Brain Actually Does When It Hears Your Voice, According to fMRI Research

The Scan That Changed EverythingIn 2016, a team led by neuroethologist Attila Andics at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest put dogs inside an fMRI machine and played them human voices. The dogs had been trained over months to lie still without sedation, a feat that itself says something about how…

Times Life · Aug 29

This Physicist Predicted A 2026 Population Doomsday In 1960, And The Date Is Uncomfortably Specific

Science is supposed to help us understand the future, but sometimes it leaves us with more questions than answers. A 1960 mathematical model predicted that humanity could reach an impossible population “infinity” on November 13, 2026, a date made even more ominous by the fact that it falls on Friday…

Bored Panda · Aug 27