Jan Hoole, Lecturer in Biology, Keele University Whales belong in the ocean, right? That may be true today, but cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) actually descended from four legged mammals that once lived on land. New research published in Current Biology reports the discovery in Peru of an entirely new species of ancestral whale that straddled […]
Karoo fossil find may shed light on how sabre toothed predators evolved
A team from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand has discovered the fossil remains of what may be the oldest large-sized gorgonopsian ever found. The extremely well preserved fossil was found in Laingsburg in South Africa’s arid Karoo. Julien Benoit, Postdoc in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand Prehistoric bestiary […]
From medicine to nanotechnology: how gold quietly shapes our world
Werner van Zyl, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Lecturer in sustainable biomass, energy and water systems, University of KwaZulu-Natal The periodic table of chemical elements turns 150 this year. The anniversary is a chance to shine a light on particular elements – some of which seem ubiquitous but which ordinary people beyond the world of chemistry […]
Last of the giants: What killed off Madagascar’s megafauna a 1000 years ago?
What’s remarkable about the megafaunal crash in Madagascar is that it occurred not tens of thousands of years ago but just over 1,000 years ago, between A.D. 700 and 1000. And while some small populations survived a while longer, the damage was done in a relatively short amount of time. Why? Giant 10-foot-tall elephant birds, […]
Mining the MOON
Anticipation of lunar living is driving engineering and experimental work to determine how to efficiently use lunar materials to support human exploration. Paul K. Byrne, Assistant Professor of Planetary Geology, North Carolina State University If you were transported to the Moon this very instant, you would surely and rapidly die. That’s because there’s no atmosphere, […]
How Homo naledi is changing the theory of human evolution
In 2013 a treasure trove of unusual fossils were uncovered at the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa, and researchers soon realised these were the remains of a new species of ancient humans. Paleoanthropologist Juliet Brophy takes us inside the discovery of Homo naledi, explaining how this mysterious ancestor is forcing us to rethink […]
First private spacecraft shoots for the moon
A SpaceX rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night carrying Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft, aiming to make history as the first private-sector landing on the Moon, and the first from Israel. Successful deployment of the SpaceIL lunar lander confirmed, starting the spacecraft’s two-month voyage to the Moon pic.twitter.com/iMlVYJHef3 — SpaceX (@SpaceX) February […]
The World of the Future by Michio Kaku
Dr Michio Kaku is an American theoretical physicist and futurist.
What the moon’s craters reveal about the Earth’s history
We predict that the rare extinction-level event type craters like Chicxulub, which may have lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs, were a byproduct of the current high bombardment rate. These new findings could have implications for the evolution of Phanerozoic life – our current geologic era – and the history of life including extinction […]
‘The Cow’ explosion: how astronomers are cracking one of the greatest new mysteries of the sky
Astronomers all around the world started watching the Cow, which is one of the strangest and most observed objects recently discovered. Measurements of its brightness and wavelength suggest that it is located close to 200m light years away, far outside our own galaxy. This means that the explosion would have been extremely bright to have […]