Live Science: The Most Interesting Articles, Mysteries & Discoveries

Planet Earth

La Cumbre Vieja, a volcano in La Palma, shooting lava fountains into the air

La Palma volcano spews lava hundreds of feet in the air, but don't expect a 'mega-tsunami'

By Nicoletta Lanese

Thousands of tremors shook the island in the week before the eruption occurred.

The General Sherman Tree in California's Sequoia National Park is the world's largest tree by volume.

Firefighters race to save the world’s largest tree as wildfires rage

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

California firefighters have wrapped the bases of the world's largest trees in fire-resistant aluminum blankets to protect them from a wildfire that is raging nearby.

Space and Physics

Brazilian observer José Luis Pereira captured this shot of an impactor (bright flash at center-left) hitting Jupiter on Sept. 13, 2021.

Jupiter just got smacked by a space rock and an amateur astronomer caught it on camera

By Mike Wall

Brazilian observer José Luis Pereira captured a bright flash on the solar system's largest planet on Sept. 13, memorializing the fiery death of a space rock high in the Jovian atmosphere.

The almost-full Harvest Moon sets behind the Statue of Liberty before sunrise on Sept. 20, 2021

Don't miss tonight's full Harvest Moon

By Laura Geggel

Here's how to see September's full Harvest Moon.

History

3D rendering shows hand and footprints left by ancient hominin children

Kids' fossilized handprints may be some of the world's oldest art

By Nicoletta Lanese

The prints, likely left by hominin children, were discovered thousands of feet above sea level.

A buried skeleton from the early Jomon period.

Ancient bones reveal previously unknown Japanese ancestors

By Harry Baker

Researchers have revealed a previously unconfirmed third group of ancestors for modern-day Japanese populations, after analyzing ancient bones found in Japan.

Health

Wyoming woman catches rare pneumonic plague from cats

By Rachael Rettner

Cats are highly susceptible to plague and are a known source of infections in people.

Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for younger kids

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

A lower dose of the vaccine showed to be safe, well-tolerated and effective in spurring antibodies in kids between 5 to 11 years of age, the company announced.

Why don't we breathe equally out of both nostrils?

By Tara Santora

You have two nostrils, but usually one is dominant.

Animals

The original fossil of Yuanchuavis, which was found in the Jehol Biota in northeastern China.

Bizarre tail on little dinosaur-age bird was literally a drag

By Laura Geggel

An extraordinary 120-million-year-old fossil bird from China reveals that the animal had a sexy but vaguely impractical tail.

The dead white-sided dolphins were pulled from the water off the Faroe Islands on Sept. 12, 2021.

Slaughter of more than 1,400 dolphins in the Faroe Islands sparks condemnation worldwide

By Joanna Thompson

Hunters in the Faroe Islands ambushed and slaughtered a super-pod of more than 1,400 white-sided dolphins on Sunday (Sept. 12), leading to worldwide outcry.

Kids discover giant penguin’s fossil skeleton in New Zealand

By Mindy Weisberger

A newly described extinct giant penguin from New Zealand has unusually long legs and a long, slender beak, and it dates to a time when much of the region was underwater.

Strange News

A hammerhead shark that is preserved in alcohol in the East Wing of the Natural History Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Why is alcohol used to preserve things?

By Donavyn Coffey

Here's how alcohol can help preserve DNA, tissue samples and even entire organisms.

Pi is an irrational number, meaning it has an infinite number of decimal points.

Pi calculated to a record-breaking 62.8 trillion digits

By Harry Baker

Researchers are set to break the world record for the most precise value of pi, after using an advanced computer to calculate the famous constant to 62.8 trillion decimal places.

Two aircraft pilots reported seeing a bright green UFO over Canada in July 2021.

Two planes report 'bright green UFO' swooping through the clouds over Canada

By Brandon Specktor

Two aircrafts flying over Canada reported a "bright green UFO" that disappeared into the clouds on July 30.

Culture

Are left-handed people smarter?

By Randyn Bartholomew

Here's a look at the research about whether left-handed people are smarter than righties.

Reproduction of Ötzi the Iceman an in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy

Ötzi the Iceman: The famous frozen mummy

By Tom Garlinghouse

Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old man whose mummified remains were dug out of an Italian glacier in the Alps, has fascinated the public since his discovery in 1991.

What is ESP?

By Isobel Whitcomb

Also known as "the sixth sense" or "psi," extrasensory perception, or ESP, encompasses a wide range of paranormal abilities, including mind reading and predicting the future.

Tech

An artist's illustration of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites in orbit. The company has won a U.S. military contract for missile-warning satellites.

SpaceX Starlink satellites responsible for over half of close encounters in orbit, scientist says

By Tereza Pultarova

SpaceX's Starlink satellites are involved in about 1,600 close encounters between two spacecraft in low Earth orbit every week, according to available data. That’s about 50% of all such incidents.

Damien Jemison, photographer at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), captured this image of the NIF laser beam lines entering a part of the target chamber. Jemison needed five exposures to capture the range of light in the dimly lit spot. He also converted the resulting image to monotone, saying "The end result is my artistic view of how I feel when standing face-to-face with the highest-energy laser in the world."

Fusion experiment breaks record, blasts out 10 quadrillion watts of power

By Tom Metcalfe

Crowds converge at Kabul's international airport Monday (Aug. 16) after the Taliban took over the Afghan city.

Crowds of desperate people at Afghanistan airport visible in satellite photos

By Elizabeth Howell

Latest News