Science
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A distant comet is forming new rings while we watch in real time
Illustration of Chiron’s rings Dan Durda For the first time, astronomers are watching a ring system form in real time. The rings in question encircle Chiron, a comet-like object that takes a path around the sun between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. Every time we look at Chiron, its rings seem to be a little different. Chiron isn’t the…
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Your diet is probably dangerously acidic but there’s a simple solution
I am standing in the bathroom with a strip of litmus paper in my hand. I am going to pee on it and hope that it doesn’t turn red, which would indicate acid. This isn’t for a bet – it is a (ahem) litmus test of whether my diet is slowly killing me. Acidic urine is a crude sign that…
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Galaxies fling out matter much more violently than we thought
Black holes are extremely powerful matter distributors NASA Image Collection/Alamy Unexpectedly violent black holes may have caused the mystery of the missing cosmic matter. Most of the universe is filled with mysterious dark matter, but even ordinary matter has stumped cosmologists. Some of this normal matter – made up of particles called baryons – seemed to have been missing for…
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We may finally know what causes will-o’-the-wisps
An 1849 engraving depicting a will-o’-the-wisp SSPL/Getty Images Bubbles merging in water can spontaneously generate electric sparks powerful enough to ignite methane, which could explain mysterious flashes of light known as will-o’-the-wisps. In bogs, swamps and marshes, people occasionally see mysterious blue-tinged flashes of light above water, which have commonly been associated with ghosts or spirits. A more likely explanation…
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Venus has lava tubes, and they’re weird
We are learning more about Venus, the hot, high-pressure planet JSC/NASA We now know for sure that massive underground tunnels, carved by lava, exist on Venus – and they are surprisingly wide and different from those on any other planet. It is uncontroversial that lava tubes – underground tunnels carved out by molten rock – exist on Earth, the moon…
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The oldest human mummies were slowly smoked 14,000 years ago
Left: The remains of a middle-aged woman at the Liyupo site in southern China, who was smoke-dried prior to burial about 8000 years ago. Right: A modern smoke-dried mummy of the Dani people in West Papua, Indonesia Zhen Li, Hirofumi Matsumura, Hsiao-chun Hung Human bodies carefully preserved by smoking up to 14,000 years ago have been found at archaeological sites…
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Can a strange new treatment finally relieve chronic sinus infections?
“It has a huge, huge impact on almost every facet of life,” says Duncan Boak. “Not being able to breathe properly. Being bunged up all the time. Blowing your nose constantly, snot running out of your nose constantly, not being able to sleep, facial pain. And it is one of the biggest causes of smell loss, which, for the majority…
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Just 1 minute of vigorous exercise a day could add years to your life
Exercise doesn’t have to last long to deliver big benefits SOL STOCK LTD If you don’t exercise for the sake of exercising, doing five or six vigorous activities, each lasting just 10 seconds or so every day, can make a big difference. A study in the US has found that people who did a total of just over 1 minute…
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Is Africa about to see the solar energy boom it needs?
Solar panels for sale in Niamey, Niger, a country where solar energy is booming BOUREIMA HAMA/AFP via Getty Images A record surge of solar panels flowing from China to countries in Africa over the past year is a sign the continent is seeing a rapid build-out of renewable energy. That could help expand access to cheap, clean electricity and reduce…
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Unprecedented Arctic heatwave melted 1 per cent of Svalbard’s ice
Svalbard saw record-breaking high temperatures in the summer of 2024 Xinhua/Shutterstock During the summer of 2024, six weeks of record-smashing heat led to a record-obliterating amount of ice melting on the islands of Svalbard in the Arctic. By the end of the summer, 1 per cent of all the land ice on the archipelago had been lost – enough to…
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