ScienceAlert

NASA Administrator Says Pluto Is Still a Planet, And Things Are Getting Heated

Saturday 24 August 2019 marked a vexing anniversary for planetary scientists.

Newly Discovered Snake Can Strike You With Venom Without Even Opening Its Mouth

Hidden in the evergreen forests of Guinea and Liberia, scientists have discovered a new species of snake that can deliver a venomous stab all wi…

Is Autism Actually on The Rise? It's Not as Straightforward as You Might Think

31 verified experts answered this question on independent fact-checking platform Metafact.io.

Every Few Hours A Flash of Light Comes From The Moon. Another Impact

Ever since the Apollo missions explored the lunar surface, scientists have known that the Moon's craters are the result of a long history of met…

Scientists Just Found The Oldest Evidence of Plague, in The Bones of a Neolithic Woman

A new discovery has pushed the timeline of the plague in Europe back even earlier than we had previously thought.

This Little-Known Sea Is a Grim Preview of What Global Warming Will Do to Oceans

Kiel, Germany: The herring here - both a symbol of the seaside region and a staple food that locals eat salted, pickled or fried - have plummete…

Why Are People With Autism Often Good at Maths? New Study Offers a Clue

For the many challenges imposed by autism spectrum disorder (ASD), those same brain differences can also make some tasks a little easier. New re…

There's No Clear Link Between Brain Cancer And Electromagnetic Fields, Says Largest Study Yet

From mobile phones to microwave ovens, the modern world virtually glows with high-frequency electromagnetic radiation (EMF).

A Harvard Psychologist Explains Why Your Brain Never Runs Out of Problems to Find

Why do many problems in life seem to stubbornly stick around, no matter how hard people work to fix them? It turns out that a quirk in the way h…

Africa's Ancient 'Trees of Life' Are Suddenly Dying, And Scientists Don't Know Why

For centuries – millennia even – they've towered over the savannah like giants from another world, but their long, almost immortal watch is at l…

Here's The Reason Why Diseases Like Ebola Are So Much Worse in Isolated Communities

Sadly, as I write this piece, three isolated rural communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are being "invaded" by an infectious dise…

Swarm of Over 200 Earthquakes Detected at Yellowstone Supervolcano

Regular earthquakes are bad enough.

Some People Can Distinguish Smells as Easily as Most of Us Can Name Colours

What do we talk about when we talk about smell? Mostly other things.

The Word 'Allah' Has Been Discovered Woven Into Viking Burial Clothes

Ancient burial clothes thought to have been woven with typical Viking patterns have, after decades in storage, revealed a surprise: geometric Ku…

Silk Spun by Graphene-Fed Spiders Is Now One of The Strongest Materials on Earth

Spider webs are already strong enough to restrain small insects unlucky enough to fly into them, and soon, they may be capable of carrying the w…

Why Can't Monkeys Talk?

Decades ago, while Philip H.

Earth Just Passed 410 ppm CO2 Levels for the First Time in Human History

On April 18, Earth breached its latest climate change milestone.

The World's Oldest Fungus Might Have Just Been Found Buried Under South Africa

Scientists have found evidence of what could be the oldest fungal life on the planet, discovering traces of microfossils buried in ancient volca…