The 10 biggest archaeology discoveries of 2020

Despite the difficult year, many archaeological and historical discoveries came to light, including a sprawling geoglyph in Peru, a trove of mummies, the tomb of the legendary Romulus and more.

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Would you eat a python to save the Everglades?

Invading pythons are causing problems for the native wildlife in Florida. Should people start eating them and are they even safe to eat?

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10 steamy signs in 2020 that climate change is speeding up

From record wildfires to a bumper crop of hurricanes to melting poles, here are some of the biggest signs in 2020 that climate change is speeding up.

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6 ways the hunt for dark matter changed in 2020

This year saw a possible first detection of solar axions, and the possible death of the sterile neutrino.

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10 ways COVID-19 changed the world

Here are just some of the ways COVID-19 changed the world in 2020.

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US rivers are changing from blue to yellow and green, satellite images show

Researchers believe color changes could be used as a proxy for the health of river ecosystems.

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10 things we learned about our human ancestors in 2020

Some human ancestors are known only as "ghost" populations.

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Murder hornets and monkey cannibals: 10 times nature freaked us out in 2020

Some of this year's top science stories were truly the stuff of nightmares.

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The 100 best science photos of 2020

'Naked' sharks, secret galaxy mergers, disco tardigrades and more incredible science photos from this crazy year.

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Here's what we learned about aliens in 2020

From the best places to find them to what they might breathe, here are the newest clues we discovered about alien life.

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10 huge black hole findings from 2020

Here, we take a look at some of the most spectacular black hole findings of 2020.

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10 strange animals that washed ashore in 2020

Here are 10 gnarly animals from our ocean's depths.

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8 times nature was totally metal in 2020

Remembering the cannibal dinosaurs, chest-bursting eels, and rampaging galaxies that made 2020 heavier than dark matter.

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Bats are superheroes of the night. Their superpowers could help us protect them.

Conservationists are using bats' echolocation abilities to help track these mammals, as many of them succumb to white nose syndrome.

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The strangest medical cases of 2020

From a man with green urine to a teenager with a sewing pin in his heart, a number of intriguing medical cases caught our eye this year.

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10 science records broken in 2020

From the longest bird flight to the oldest identical twins, 2020 was filled with record-breaking science.

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The coolest ancient weapons discovered in 2020

Here are nine cool ancient weapons discovered this year.

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World's largest iceberg continues to break up off the coast of South Georgia

It is hoped that the icebergs will now miss the island, but their fate is still uncertain.

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10 geological discoveries that absolutely rocked 2020

Here are 10 of the most amazing geological discoveries of the year.

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10 times science made a sucky year suck less

From the incredible efforts of scientists to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in record time to clapping seals, this year had some amazing discoveries.

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10 times science made a sucky year suck less

From the incredible efforts of scientists to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in record time to clapping seals, this year had some amazing discoveries.

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What are the most common ways people get injured?

The most common culprit is found in most homes.

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10 times sharks made our jaws drop in 2020

Here are our favorite stories about sharks from 2020.

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Mysterious asteroid the size of a dwarf planet is lurking in our solar system

There's a giant asteroid somewhere out there in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth that left behind meteorites unlike any scientists had ever seen.

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Why aren't peanuts, pecans and almonds real nuts?

Brazil nuts and cashews are crunchy and small, so why aren't they nuts?

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6 times that 2020 showed us women from antiquity were totally badass

This year, archaeologists discovered intriguing evidence showing that women of the ancient world were not to be trifled with.

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Live Science's top stories of 2020: Writers' choice

From a mirror universe to X-shaped galaxies, these stories guaranteed that 2020 would be a year to remember.

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Fireballs, spaceships and … iguanas? 7 strange things that fell from the sky

Watch your head!

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Our most popular science stories of 2020

Here are the most-read stories on Live Science this year.

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10 bizarre animal stories of 2020

2020 was a weird year, even in the animal kingdom.

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Fast-spreading UK coronavirus variant: All your questions answered

A scary new strain of coronavirus, innocuously named B.1.1.7, has recently exploded across southeast England, prompting the government to tighten lockdowns on the region. Though we don't know all the details, experts are increasingly confident it is more easily transmitted than other strains. Here's everything we know so far about this novel strain.

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Extraterrestrial evidence: 10 incredible findings about aliens from 2020

Are we alone in the universe? Many discoveries about aliens in 2020 seemed to increase the prospect of extraterrestrial entities existing.

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Weapons carved from human bone come from drowned land bridge between UK and Europe

It's a mystery why hunter-gatherers from the Stone Age crafted weapons from human bone.

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Lyme disease-carrying ticks may invade new territory in the Midwest

The model can help identify which counties are at high-risk for invasion.

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13 ways the Earth showed its wrath in 2020

Eruptions, temblors and severe weather, oh my.

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Humans are destroying our 'perfect planet,' Attenborough says

A new series explores the powerful natural forces that work together to sculpt and support life on our fragile pale blue dot.

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The 10 coolest dinosaur findings of 2020

Here's what we've learned about dinosaurs in 2020.

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Jupiter and Saturn descend on world's tallest building in epic 'Great Conjunction' video

A photographer filmed the "Great Conjunction" of Jupiter and Saturn as the heavenly bodies passed by Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

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Octopus punches fish in the head (just because it can)

Octopuses sometimes partner with fish to hunt, but the partnership comes with risks (for the fish, that is).

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'Zombie' greenhouse gas lurks in permafrost beneath the Arctic Ocean

Experts say we need to improve our patchy knowledge of subsea permafrost.

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Air pressure makes Mount Everest 'shrink' by thousands of feet, new study finds

Seasonal changes in air pressure sometimes make Mount Everest's "perceived elevation" to shrink by thousands of feet, a new study finds.

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Man revives baby elephant using CPR: How does that work?

A man successfully revived a baby elephant using CPR after the animal was involved in a road accident. How did he do it?

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Ancient 'swamp king' monster croc once terrorized Australia

The ‘swamp king’ was over 16 feet long and much broader than modern-day crocodiles.

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Seals are making 'Star Wars' noises at each other underwater, and we have no idea why

Antarctica's Weddell seals communicate with each other in a high-pitched underwater language reminiscent of Star Wars sound effects, a new study finds.

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Antarctica has its 1st COVID-19 outbreak

The outbreak occurred at the a Chilean research base on the Antarctic Peninsula.

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Is it safe to get the COVID-19 vaccine if you're pregnant?

Though the vaccine hasn't been tested in pregnant people, experts think that it's likely safe.

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Stunning telescope image of Jupiter and Saturn's Great Conjunction will amaze you

A telescope close-up reveals the strange beauty of the Great Conjunction.

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Moon has way (way) more craters than we thought

Scientists found over 109,000 previously unidentified impact craters on the moon using artificial intelligence and data from China's lunar orbiters, creating the largest crater database of its kind.

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What's causing rare allergic reactions to Pfizer's vaccine?

Several severe allergic reactions that were reported among hundreds of thousands of people vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine last week.

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2 people die in shark attacks. How unusual is this?

Separate shark attacks in Hawaii and the eastern Caribbean leave two people dead. Experts say tragedies like this are rare relative to the number of people in the water.

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Scientists think they've spotted the farthest galaxy in the universe

Astronomers have peered out into the vast expanse and spotted what they think is the farthest (and oldest) galaxy ever observed.

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World’s ugliest orchid looks like a soul-sucking, eyeless worm

Orchids are usually prized for their loveliness, but a newly described species is no beauty.

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Doctors heard music when checking a man's pulse. Here's why.

In addition to the thump thump of the man's heart, doctors heard music when checking his pulse.

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What was the Star of Bethlehem?

According to the New Testament, the Star of Bethlehem led the three wise men to Jesus' birth. Here are a few theories about what the star really was.

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Is the new UK coronavirus variant more contagious?

The variant has a mutation that may make the virus "sticker" or allow it to bind more tightly to human cells.

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Could the Christmas Star visible tonight actually be the Star of Bethlehem?

Did the biblical "Star of Bethlehem" come back in 2020? It wouldn't be crazy to think so. But it's not the only possibility.

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Exquisitely-preserved wolf pup mummy discovered in Yukon permafrost

A wolf pup mummy, perfectly preserved in permafrost for 57,000 years, is finally giving up some of its secrets.

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3,800-year-old baby in a jar unearthed in Israel

Jaffa's 4,000-year-old history is buried beneath its streets.

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Mummified baboons may identify lost land of Punt, ancient Egypt's trading partner

Ancient Egyptians got those baboons from somewhere.

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Red Bull skydivers recreate mysterious Marfa lights for winter solstice 2020

An epic nighttime skydive saw Red Bull Air Force's Amy Chmelecki and teammates don pyrotechnics to highlight – literally – the importance of astronomy and dark skies in a rural region of Texas.

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Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts with dramatic lava fountains

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupted beginning Sunday (Dec. 20) night local time, with dramatic lava fountains and huge puffs of gas and steam being launched from the summit crater called Halema'uma'u.

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Gargantuan chunk of 'cosmic web' discovered. It's 50 million light-years long.

Astronomers discover one of the longest filaments of the cosmic web. And it may help solve the puzzle of the universe's missing matter.

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How to watch tonight's 'great conjunction' of Jupiter and Saturn

Here's how to catch the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, something that hasn't happened this spectacularly in nearly 800 years.

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Here's the science of the winter solstice

Today's winter solstice will boast the year's fewest hours of daylight for the Northern Hemisphere. Here's why.

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Alien hunters detect mystery signal coming from the closest star system

Astronomers hunting for radio signals from alien civilizations have reportedly detected an "intriguing signal" from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to the sun.

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Our galaxy's supermassive black hole is closer to Earth than we thought

The supermassive black hole hiding in the center of our galaxy is much closer to Earth, about 2,000 light-years closer, than scientists thought.

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SpaceX launches classified US spy satellite, sticks rocket landing to cap record year

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched a clandestine U.S. spy  satellite into space for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)  Saturday (Dec. 19) , marking its 26th rocket of the year.

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How wild was the Wild West?

While officially lawless, settlers usually weren't all that wild.

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The best coding toys for kids

From programmable robots to pocket-sized computers, there are a plethora of tools out there for kids to learn the basics of programming.

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China is opening the world's largest radio telescope up to international scientists

Following the collapse of the historic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, China has opened the biggest radio telescope in the world up to international scientists.

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The world's largest iceberg has just broken in two

A chunk of ice about the size of Queens and the Bronx combined has broken off what was, until this fracture, the world's largest iceberg.

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The Milky Way is probably full of dead civilizations

If there are other intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way, they are probably much closer than we are to the galactic center, and fairly young.

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What's the biggest group of animals ever recorded on Earth?

From expansive underground colonies, to glinting underwater shoals, vast cacophonous flocks, and cloud-blanketing swarms, these animals are top contenders for the title of the world's most numerous group.

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Deadly centipede 'king' rules over a poison hellscape cave

Dozens of species live in Romania's toxic Movile Cave, and a newly described centipede species is the "king" of this unique ecosystem.

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Unsafe levels of radiation found in Chernobyl crops

Crops grown near the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine are still contaminated with radiation from the explosive 1986 disaster.

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Lost artifact from Great Pyramid was just found in a cigar tin in Scotland

After a small piece of wood from the Great Pyramid was donated to a museum in Scotland, it vanished for decades. A curator found it hiding in plain sight.

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Newly discovered fungi turn flies into zombies and devour them from the inside out

Two newly discovered fungi eat flies from the inside out while dropping new spores out of holes dissolved in the living flies' abdomens.

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Scientists think they've detected radio emissions from an alien world

Scientists may have detected radio emissions from a planet orbiting a star beyond our sun for the first time.

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Invisible 'arches of chaos' span the solar system

Scientists have mapped the "arches of chaos:" a vast network of arching structures filling the solar system that could one day aid space travel.

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Angel, devil and blood-red heart appear at Martian south pole

It's summer in Mars' southern hemisphere, and strange structures are crawling out of the ice.

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Top 10 deadliest natural disasters in history

Here are the world's most deadliest earthquakes, cyclones and floods.

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Ötzi the Iceman may have scaled ice-free Alps

Many Alpine summits may have been ice-free before about 5,900 years ago.

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Huge methane cache beneath Arctic could be unlocked by the moon

The moon's tides affect how much methane is released from seafloor sediments and the implications are huge.

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2 calves of one of world's most endangered large whales spotted

Two newborn whales were spotted swimming off the U.S. coast, giving researchers hope for a critically endangered whale species.

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See the moon's shadow on Earth from the 2020 total solar eclipse in these stunning satellite views

Skywatchers in southern South America were treated to a total solar eclipse on Monday (Dec. 14), and a weather satellite captured stunning views of the event from space.

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China's Chang'e 5 capsule lands on Earth with the 1st new moon samples in 44 years

China's Chang'e 5 moon sample-return capsule landed in Inner Mongolia on Wednesday (Dec. 16), returning lunar rocks for the first time since 1976.

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Robot dogs could someday explore deep caves on Mars

Robotic "Mars Dogs" could use artificial intelligence and sensors to investigate the Martian surface and map hidden lava tunnels.

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Two strange blobs of X-ray energy are swirling out of the galaxy's center

The eROSITA X-ray telescope just revealed two strange bubbles of X-ray energy, sitting smack-dab inside the Fermi Bubbles.

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Deadly 'brain-eating amoeba' has expanded its range northward

You can thank climate change for this too.

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Stunningly preserved ‘Cretaceous Pompeii’ fossils may not be what they seem

Two dinosaurs that died in China during the Cretaceous were fossilized in 3D — but it probably wasn't a volcanic eruption that killed and preserved them.

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Nor'easter could drop a foot of snow on New England

The storm follows last year's mild winter with below-average snowfall.

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1st wild animal in US infected with SARS-CoV-2 found in Utah

A wild mink just tested positive.

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Red Sea oil tanker 4 times as big as Exxon Valdez could spill any day now

A mammoth oil tanker is decaying into the Red Sea, threatening to pollute the water supply of millions of people and the world's most resilient coral reef.

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World's oldest python fossil unearthed

The discovery of the world's oldest python fossils on record suggests that these snakes originated in Europe and probably lived alongside boas.

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US could reach 'net-zero' carbon by 2050. Here's how.

The U.S. can cut its carbon output to zero by the middle of the 21th century, according to a major new Princeton University study. It might even save money.

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How a girl's 'death mask' from the 1800s became the face of CPR dolls

The story behind the face of the CPR dummy.

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Hundreds of graves reveal Spanish town’s secret Muslim history

An archaeological site in northeast Spain holds one of the oldest-known Muslim cemeteries in the country, with the discovery of 433 graves.

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Spooning skeletons: Who were these 3,000-year-old 'Romeo and Juliet'?

More than 3,000 years ago, a couple at a biblical site in Israel was buried side by side in a spooning position, and archaeologists are calling them Romeo and Juliet.

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China's Chang'e 5 moon lander is no more after successfully snagging lunar rocks

China's Chang'e 5 lander touched down on the moon and collected the first lunar samples in nearly 50 years, but now the lights have gone out.

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Coronavirus relief funds could easily pay to stop the worst of climate change (Op-Ed)

As of late summer, governments around the world had pledged US$12.2 trillion of relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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There's a new coronavirus variant in the UK. Here's what we know.

Vaccines will likely work just as well against the variant.

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The UK is sending robot submarines to watch the world’s largest iceberg crash into an island

The world’s largest iceberg appears days away from crashing into a penguin-filled island. These robots will study the aftermath.

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Physicists attempt to unify all forces of nature and rectify Einstein's biggest failure

Einstein's failed dream could ultimately become his ultimate triumph, as a small group of theoretical physicists rework his old ideas to explain the most pressing issues of modern science.

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Man who died of constipation 1,000 years ago ate grasshoppers for months

A man who died of constipation more than 1,000 years ago survived on just grasshoppers for months, his mummy has revealed.

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Physicists give Schrodinger's cat a cheshire grin

Physicists have shown how a particle might show its face in a corner of an experiment without needing its body anywhere in sight, like a grin without a cat.

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FDA approves genetically engineered pigs for food and transplants

Pigs that have been genetically engineered to be free of a molecule that triggers meat allergies have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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Polar cyclones on Jupiter create a spellbinding vortex cluster

NASA's Juno mission offers fresh insights into Jupiter's dynamic atmosphere.

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Giant Aztec skull 'tower' unearthed in Mexico

More than 500 years ago, the Aztecs created a "trophy tower" out of hundreds of human skulls.

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1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine given in New York

On Monday (Dec. 14), the very first doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was given in the U.S., marking the start of a long campaign to vaccinate the U.S. public.

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'Planet Nine' cousin found

An enormous exoplanet found circling a double star 336 light-years away may provide clues to a mystery closer to home: Planet Nine.

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The only total solar eclipse of 2020 may be one few get a chance to see

It would only seem appropriate that the final eclipse in this eccentric year of 2020 will be visible only from Patagonia — nicknamed "the end of the world."

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What's behind the mysterious, earth-shaking boom of the 'Seneca Guns'?

Scientists investigated the unexplained booming sounds known as "Seneca Guns," heard near coastal North Carolina.

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Massive supercontinent will form hundreds of millions of years from now

Scientists are modeling when Earth's next supercontinent phase will begin, and how that could affect global climate.

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Longest-exposure photo ever was just discovered. It was made through a beer can.

Eight years and one month ago, a Master of Fine Art student at the University of Hertfordshire fitted a beer can with photographic paper and created a low-tech pinhole camera. She then placed the can on a telescope at the university's Bayfordbury Observatory and eventually forgot about the project. 

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Spectacular Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight. Here's how to watch the show.

The Geminids meteor shower peaks on Sunday, and should provide good views of shooting stars anywhere the sky is clear.

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How will sea levels change with climate change?

Sea level changes are not happening uniformly across Earth's oceans. Here's why.

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Flying fish: Real fish, but not really flying

Key facts and information about flying fish.

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Ancient Egyptian hoard of counterfeit 'dirty money' unearthed

A shortage of silver caused by the collapse of leading Bronze Age civilizations around the eastern Mediterranean about 1200 BC resulted in the original "dirty money" — several hundreds of years before coins had been invented.

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How does a secure phone line work?

Encryption tech can be either hardware or software.

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How long can human embryos stay frozen?

Hypothetically, an implanted embryo could be older than the woman who gives birth to it.

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COVID-19 vaccines: The new technology that made them possible

Here's how mRNA vaccines work, and why they could make such a difference for vaccine development.

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Why an Australian COVID-19 vaccine caused false-positive HIV tests

The vaccine appeared safe and effective, but some participants falsely tested positive for HIV.

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1,800-year-old altar to pagan god Pan hidden in a Byzantine church

Archaeologists in Israel have found an ancient altar to Pan that was repurposed as a brick in a church wall.

via Livescience.com https://ift.tt/3gF9P3o

Army officer's secret journal could offer new clues about the UFO crash in Roswell in 1947

An army officer was among the first people to inspect wreckage of a so-called UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, and he may have recorded clues about what he saw in a journal.

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Child's bones buried 40,000 years ago solve long-standing Neanderthal mystery

We don't know whether it was a boy or a girl. But this ancient child, a Neanderthal, only made it to about two years of age.

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World's largest iceberg still barreling toward penguin habitat, new footage confirms

Iceberg A-68a is just a few hundred miles from crashing into South Georgia island, new photos from the Royal Air Force reveal.

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How to watch the northern lights across far northern US tonight

The forecast isn't certain, but some in the U.S. might get a rare glance at the aurora.

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People sometimes prefer burning hot pain to thinking too hard

Thinking hard is a pain.

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Gold coin stash from time of Henry VIII found in English garden

A family pulling weeds in the garden discovered a hoard of gold coins featuring various British monarchs dating back to the 1400s.

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Human-made stuff now outweighs every living thing on Earth

All of the Amazon's splendid greenery. Every fish in the Pacific. Every microbe underfoot. Every elephant on the plains, every flower, fungus, and fruit-fly in the fields, no longer outweighs the sheer amount of stuff humans have made.

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Your skin should be toxic to ticks. Here's why it's not.

A toxin from an ancient bacteria helps ticks survive and transmit Lyme disease to the humans they feed on, a new study finds.

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Bees defeat 'murder hornet' relatives with poop

Asian honey bees defend their hives by attaching animal dung around the doorways, a behavior that was previously unknown in bees.

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NASA's spacecraft spots China's Chang'e 5 lander on the moon

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of China's Chang'e 5 lander on the moon just hours after its historic landing.

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Fragments of energy may be the fundamental building blocks of the universe

Matter is what makes up the universe, but what makes up matter?

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This is what a supernova sounds like, according to NASA

NASA's new data sonification project turns the universe's most extreme phenomena into sounds.

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SpaceX's Starship SN8 prototype soars on epic test launch, with explosive landing

SpaceX's Starship spaceflight system just took a big step on its path to Mars.

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Missing link in pterosaur origins discovered

An enigmatic group of Triassic reptiles might be a close relative of pterosaurs.

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Dramatic transformation of the Arctic landscape may be permanent

From vanishing sea ice to blistering air temperatures to zombie fires, climate change is reshaping the Arctic. And that transformation may be permanent, researchers said.

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When will COVID-19 vaccines start to make a difference?

A new model projects how case rates, hospitalizations and deaths will fall as COVID-19 vaccinations begin.

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Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine is 86% effective, early data suggest

The United Arab Emirates has approved the vaccine based on this data.

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People with significant allergies should avoid Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, UK warns

This comes after two National Health Service members developed allergic reactions to the vaccine on Tuesday.

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SpaceX aborts Starship SN8 prototype test launch at last second

SpaceX's first attempt to launch a Starship prototype on a high-altitude test flight ended with a last-second abort in Texas on Tuesday (Dec. 8).

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Sahara's 'Godzilla' dust storm may have been triggered by warming in the Arctic

Warmer-than-average conditions and declining sea ice in the Arctic may be linked to the Sahara Desert's biggest dust storm in recorded history.

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The strange story of how nuns uncovered 'House of Jesus' in Nazareth

A group of 19th-century sisters excavated and protected the House of Jesus in Nazareth. Here's their story.

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Archaeologists find vast network of Amazon villages laid out like the cosmos

The remnants of circular and rectangular villages dating to 1300 were discovered in the Amazon rainforest.

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Saturn and Jupiter to almost 'kiss' this winter solstice

From Earth's perspective, Jupiter and Saturn will appear a moon's distance apart on Dec. 21.

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Dogs will never speak human. Here's why.

The findings mean that dogs may be similar to human infants in their word processing abilities.

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Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine starts to work just 10 days after 1st dose

Overall, the vaccine was 52% effective after the first dose and 95% effective after the second dose.

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Epic time-lapse shows what the Milky Way will look like 400,000 years from now

The Gaia space observatory just released its most detailed map of the universe yet, including the trajectories of hundreds of millions of stars.

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Watch SpaceX test a giant 'Starship' over Texas today

SpaceX plans to test its enormous Starship prototype over Boca Chica, Texas at some point Tuesday (Dec. 8).

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Who was Carl Linnaeus?

Carl Linnaeus, the famous 18th century Swedish botanist, created the basic foundation on which the modern binomial classification system is based.

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Coronavirus outbreak: Live Updates

Among the top news today: 90-year-old woman in the U.K. becomes the first person to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine outside of clinical trials.

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Giant pandas have winter poop parties, rolling around in horse manure

Pandas enjoy rolling in horse manure; this smelly habit may help them keep warm.

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Did the universe's creator hide a message in the cosmos?

Did the creator of the universe leave a hidden message in the cosmos for intelligent life? If so, scientists have yet to find it. But at least one is still trying.

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Hurricane Season: How Long It Lasts and What to Expect

Here's a guide to the Atlantic hurricane season, including predictions, naming conventions and how to prepare for a storm.

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Here's how genes determine your facial features

Scientists scanned the DNA of 8,000 people to figure out how genes control facial features. Here's what they found.

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Burnt 'Great Pyramid' notes reveal Isaac Newton's research into the apocalypse

Sir Isaac Newton, the acclaimed physicist, mathematician, and astronomer, may be one of the most renowned scientists of all time, but his wide-ranging research took him to strange places far outside what we now consider to be science.

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Puerto Rican scientists mourn loss of Arecibo Observatory's iconic telescope

In a year full of terrible new sorrows and burdens, the collapse of Arecibo Observatory's iconic radio telescope feels like a particularly brutal loss to Puerto Ricans.

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China plants its flag on the moon with Chang'e 5 lunar lander (photo, video)

China now has a real flag flying on the moon.

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Microwave pulses caused bizarre ‘Havana syndrome,’ report suggests

A string of unexplained illnesses in Cuba, China and elsewhere was likely caused by directed, pulsed radio frequency energy, according to a government report.

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Mystery illness sickens more than 300 in India

All patients tested negative for COVID-19.

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Elaborate Viking ship burial may have held a king or queen

Archaeologists have uncovered a 62-foot-long (19 meters) Viking ship that dates back more than 1,000 years and likely held remains of a king or queen.

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Rare 9-armed octopus found off Japan coast

How did an octopus in Japan grow nine arms?

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Toasty November means 2020 might nudge out 2016 as hottest year on record

Last month was even hotter than previous record-breaking Novembers.

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China claims fastest quantum computer in the world

"Jiuzhang" would be the most powerful quantum computer in the world, capable of performing some tasks 100 trillion times faster than the world's fastest supercomputers.

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Earth spent 500 million years creating and eating dead continents

For more than a billion years, Earth covered itself in new continents. New research shows that those continents were quickly swallowed up again but their deaths fertilized life on the surface.

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Nazi 'Enigma' machine found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea

Divers trying to remove old fishing nets from the Baltic sea have accidentally stumbled on a Nazi code-making "Enigma" machine.

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How a flu virus shut down the US economy in 1872 — by infecting horses

In 1872 the U.S. economy was growing as the young nation industrialized and expanded westward. Then in the autumn, a sudden shock paralyzed social and economic life.

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Chain of Alaskan islands might really be one monster volcano

Six volcanic islands in the Aleutian archipelago may be linked together in one massive caldera hiding underwater.

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Voyager mission finds a new type of electron burst at the edge of our solar system

The Voyager probes left our Solar System years ago, yet even as they travel through interstellar space, they are still detecting bursts of cosmic rays from our Sun, more than 23 billion kilometres (14 billion miles) away.

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How COVID-19 vaccines will get from the factory to your local pharmacy

Here's how the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines will be distributed and kept safe from the factory to your local pharmacy.

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Is anyone on Earth not an immigrant?

There's some people in southern Africa who might not be immigrants, scientifically speaking.

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Most accurate map of our galaxy pinpoints 1.8 billion cosmic objects

With new data from the European Gaia spacecraft, astronomers can now explore 1.8 billion cosmic objects in unparalleled detail.

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What color is the sun?

You probably learned this at school.

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Mysterious minimoon circling Earth is actually a 1960s rocket booster

It's official: Earth's minimoon is human made.

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World's oldest animal fossil actually came from rotting algae

Fat molecules attributed to ancient sea sponges actually belonged to algae, two new studies suggest.

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World's largest atom smasher could seed microscopic black holes

If teensy black holes could be produced inside the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, that would be a boon for physics.

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China's Chang'e 5 probe lifts off from moon carrying lunar samples

China has launched a small spacecraft from the surface of the moon in the critical next step in the ambitious Chang'e 5 mission to bring lunar samples to Earth.

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Physicists recorded the flowing sound of a 'perfect' fluid for the first time

For the first time, physicists have recorded sound waves moving through a perfect fluid with the lowest possible viscosity.

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COVID-19: When are you most infectious?

A close friend – let’s call him John – recently called, asking for advice.

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Drone catches Arecibo Observatory's last moments

When the cables broke at Arecibo Observatory, a drone caught the whole event on video.

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What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

How will you know if you have the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease? Here are the most common symptoms.

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Ghostly circles in the sky can't be explained. And astronomers are excited.

Ghostly circles of radio emission, hanging out in space like cosmic smoke-rings, can't be explained by current theories. And astronomers are excited to figure them out.

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Lost island beneath the North Sea survived a mega-tsunami 8,000 years ago

Some ancient islands now submerged beneath the North Sea survived a devastating tsunami about 8,000 years ago and may have played a key part in Britain's human prehistory.

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The best Montessori learning toys

Here's a roundup of Montessori toys for the little ones in your life who love to learn and have fun while they're at it.

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The Alps are growing taller

The Central Alps are growing "surprisingly quickly."

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Why did this man's urine turn green?

After five days in the ICU, a man's urine turned green.

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The Falklands War: Margaret Thatcher's great victory

In 1982, Argentina tried to reclaim the Falkland Islands from Britain, but was unsuccessful.

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COVID-19 quarantine now 10 days, 7 with test, CDC says

The recommendations for self-isolation — for people who test positive for COVID-19 — have not changed.

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Mystery of galaxy's missing dark matter solved. (And it involves a thief.)

A small, mysterious galaxy 44 million light-years away is finally yielding up its secrets.

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Watch China spacecraft land on the moon in this amazing video

A spectacular video from China's Chang'e 5 lander reveals its successful touchdown on the moon as it softly set down to collect the first lunar samples in 44 years.

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What does transgender mean?

The term transgender describes people whose gender identity differs from the sex to which they were assigned at birth.

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UK approves Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine

The first doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine will likely roll out in the U.K. next week.

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Black holes may not exist, but fuzzballs might, wild theory suggests

What if black holes aren't black holes at all, but rather the cosmic equivalent of fuzzy, vibrating balls of string?

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These photos of the Arecibo Observatory telescope collapse are just heartbreaking

Gut-wrenching pictures and video documented the beginning of the end for the Arecibo Observatory, one of the world's most iconic telescopes.

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Roman subjects paid emperor piles of silver to leave them alone, inscription reveals

A stone inscription immortalized Roman emperor Septimius Severus' gratitude for a city's generous "donation" of 700,000 silver coins.

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Scientists just mapped 1 million new galaxies, in 300 hours

Australian scientists tested all 36 receivers on the ASKAP radio telescope for the first time ever, mapping 85% of the sky in 300 hours.

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COVID-19 may have arrived in US by December 2019

Researchers studied blood samples from December 2019, and found a small number tested positive for antibodies against the virus.

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Newfound marine blob looks like 'party balloon' with two strings, scientists say

A new species of comb jelly was identified in a deep trench near Puerto Rico.

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China's Chang'e 5 lands on the moon to collect the 1st fresh lunar samples in decades

China has landed on the moon again — and this time the country plans to bring home some souvenirs.

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Broken Arecibo telescope collapses, ending an era of alien-hunting

After two snapped cables damaged Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope beyond repair, the iconic instrument has collapsed.

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The best science kit gifts for kids

Little scientists will have a bundle of fun with science kits; they will try their hand at making a potato clock, learning to levitate a pencil, creating a test-tube sunset and more.

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Mysterious black spot in polar explorer's diary offers gruesome clue to his fate

In 1907, explorer Jørgen Brønlund died during an expedition in Greenland. Scientists recently gleaned new details about Brønlund's death from a mark in his diary.

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Sprawling 8-mile-long 'canvas' of ice age beasts discovered hidden in Amazon rainforest

Ancient rock art of extinct ice age animals, handprints and patterns were found in the Amazon rainforest of Colombia.

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AI system solves 50-year-old protein folding problem in hours

This complex problem that has plagued researchers for decades.

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Biblical Goliath may not have been a giant

Goliath, the giant who was felled by King David in the Hebrew Bible, is described as having a jaw-dropping height. Turns out, that may not have been accurate.

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