Category: Shorts

Sahara Desert: The Origin of Sandstone Under the ocean, sand can be found in many forms. By the shore, the sea grinds up rocks over thousands or millions of years, making sand. Sand can also be made from rivers and other elements. On land, sand is made from rocks, ground down by weathering. An area…

Hittite Hittite Hittite This is a really exciting story: archeologists have discovered a language hidden among ancient clay tablets in Turkey. It turns out the ancient Hittites were interested in recording rituals in foreign languages, and this new language is part of that tradition. They may be able to figure out what it means, though.…

Zealandia, the eighth continent of the world Around 23 million years ago, Zealandia, the eighth continent of the world, began to sink. Its crust is completely submerged beneath the ocean. Geologists have known for a while that New Zealand and New Caledonia have similar geology, but now they realize they actually share more than that–the…

The Piltdown Man: Bones and Bones In 1912, amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson makes a sensationalist announcement about finding an important discovery in Piltdown Village, Sussex, England. In truth, he just found a mildly human-like fragment of skull. In fact, what he found was more ape-like fragments of skull and teeth. What’s more, the jawbone is…

Tree of Life: Taking an axe to the Tree Taking an axe to the tree of life. The sixth mass extinction, but it’s not just individual species that are being wiped out. A new study has found that human activity is responsible for eliminating entire groups of species, in what they call a mutilation of…

Sunspot Eruption (CME) An electronically charged plasma eruption occurred on Saturday, and scientists have just captured video of it. Known as a coronal mass ejection, the CME is a type of plasma released from the Sun and it was headed right at Earth. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had issued a watch for the…

Dark Photons Experiment (PADME) A new study looking at more than 2000 experiments in particle accelerators worldwide has found evidence for an unknown dark photon, a particle that does not fit the Standard Model of particle physics. If it were found, it would be an immense discovery. But the authors suspect what they have found…

Placozoans: The Evolution of Placozoans The blob-like sea creatures could hold the keys to the origins of our nervous systems, literally – and they contain cells that look a little bit like our neurons. See, tiny blobs of sand in the water? That’s right, it’s time to get down to brass tacks. A new study…

Viperine snake (Natrix maura This snake bit off more than it could chew, and that might be just the beginning of the story. See, scientists have caught a snake in France eating a fish that had a bunch of spines stuck in its throat. No, really. This is not a joke: The dorsal spines of…

Kalambo Falls, Zambia – Kalambo Falls, Zambia Archaeologists have found evidence of a 476,000-year-old wooden structure in Africa, possibly the earliest wooden structure ever seen. The prehistoric remains were discovered near the Kalambo River basin of Zambia, near to the famous waterfalls Kalambo Falls. To date the wood, scientists used new luminescence dating techniques. They…