The potato came from a surprising mashup. Spuds are a basic, delicious food for millions worldwide, yet their origin and evolution have long been a scientific mystery. Not anymore, scientists say. The starchy vegetable emerged 9 million years ago in the forming Andes mountains — a result of natural interbreeding between an ancient tomato plant…
515-Mile-Long Lightning Megaflash Sets New World Record A lighting flash that spanned from East Texas to an area near Kansas City in 2017 is officially the longest lightning strike ever measured, according to the World Meteorological Organization By Emma R. Hasson edited by Andrea Thompson Utah-based Photographer Ryan Houston Guinness World Records may be the…
Vincent Lynch (left) and Nic Rawlence have been targeted by negative articles Berlin Communications/Ken Miller Academics who have questioned the validity of efforts to “de-extinct” animals like the woolly mammoth and the dire wolf have complained of an apparent campaign to discredit them. They believe the attacks are intended to deter criticism of de-extinction projects,…
A massive bolt of lightning that lit up the sky from Dallas to Kansas City, Mo., in October 2017 is officially the longest single flash ever recorded. A reanalysis of satellite data collected during the storm revealed that this megaflash spanned 829 kilometers and lasted 7.39 seconds, says Michael Peterson, an applied physicist at Georgia…
Hidden Lake Bursts through Greenland Ice in ‘Extremely Surprising’ Event Water usually flows downward, but something strange happened under Greenland’s ice sheet when a deluge punched through the surface to scour an area nearly twice the size of New York’s Central Park By Stephanie Pappas edited by Jeanna Bryner Greenland’s Harder Glacier and the subglacial…
Microbial life lurks in places like this thermal vent in the Pacific Ocean Galih/Alamy IntraterrestrialsKaren G. Lloyd (Princeton University Press) I can think of a shelf-full of books about forests, and nearly as many about the ocean or deserts. And consider how much ink has been spilled over expeditions to far-flung ecosystems, from the Amazon…
Recent events in Iran demonstrate that dropping “bunker buster” bombs on nuclear plants is not an ideal, or even necessarily effective, way to prevent proliferation. It is far preferable to prevent the spread of nuclear-weapon-usable technologies in the first place. A simplistic way to achieve that might be to halt the worldwide growth of nuclear…
Electron micrograph of the HIV pathogen Scott Camazine / Alamy Stock Photo Generating effective protection against HIV may require a complex vaccine consisting of a series of different viral proteins. Now, two trials of the potential components delivered via mRNA have produced promising results. The hope is mRNA technology will make it possible to deliver…
Russia’s 8.8 Earthquake Is One of the Strongest Ever Recorded Russia’s earthquake was estimated at magnitude 8.8, among the strongest since scientists began monitoring By Mark Fischetti Damage from a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 30, 2025. Kamchatka Branch of Geophysical Survey of Russian Academy of Science (KBGSRAS)/S. Lakamov…
A 3D model of the tattooed mummy. The top image features textures derived from photographs that were captured using light visible to the human eye, while the bottom image’s textures were derived from photography in the near-infrared, which we cannot see M. Vavulin Elaborate tattoos featuring tigers, birds and a fantastical animal have been revealed…
