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

A data visualization showing the mountainous area west of Nobile Crater and the smaller craters that litter its rim at the moon’s south pole. The Nobile region — the landing site for NASA’s ice-hunting VIPER rover — features areas permanently covered in shadow as well as areas that are bathed in sunlight most of the time.

NASA unveils landing site on the moon for ice-hunting VIPER rover

By Mike Wall

The ice-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will land just west of Nobile Crater, which sits near the moon's south pole, NASA officials announced Tuesday (Sept. 20).

Twilight's fuzzy boundary complicates the concepts of an equinox and a polar night.

Twilight and the myths of the equinox and 6-month polar night

By Joe Rao

Wednesday (Sept. 22) marks the equinox, which, thanks to its Latin name meaning "equal night," is often thought of as the day when dark and light each claim 12 hours.

History

Here, an ofrendatario found at the Muisca site.

Ceramic jars full of emeralds found in temple tied to El Dorado, a mythical city of gold

By Owen Jarus

Archaeologists in Colombia have found eight ceramic jars, with metallic figurines and emeralds inside, within a temple and its adjacent graves.

The sixth-century hoard contained many gold artifacts with elaborate designs.

Treasure hunter finds gold hoard buried by Iron Age chieftain

By Laura Geggel

A Danish man with a metal detector found a sixth-century hoard buried by a chieftain.

Health

What does exercise do to your brain?

By Becks Shepherd

REFERENCE Exercise can tone and improve most parts of your body, but what does exercise do to your brain? And does it help your mental capabilities?

REFERENCE

How to run for longer without getting tired: Image of woman running

How to run for longer without getting tired: increase stamina and mental resilience

By Chloe Page

REFERENCE Knowing how to run for longer is one of the Holy Grails of fitness, so we've looked at the techniques people use to reduce fatigue and increase motivation

REFERENCE

Umeno Sumiyama and Koume Kodama of Japan are the world's oldest twins.

World's oldest identical twins are 107 years (and 300 days) old

By Rachael Rettner

Guinness World Records certified the title this month.

Animals

A group of Coelophysis, bipedal dinosaurs that lived during the Triassic period.

Some dinosaurs may have wagged their tails to help them run

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

Small-armed, two-legged dinosaurs may have wagged their tails to help them run, for the same reason humans swing their arms, according to a new study.

A mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) with its razor-sharp horns, used for self-defense.

Mountain goat kills grizzly bear by stabbing it with razor-sharp horns

By Harry Baker

The goat's horns pierced the unfortunate bear in the armpit and neck.

A leafcutter ant (Atta cephalotes) uses its metal-laced mandibles to cut through a leaf.

These vegetarian ants have steak knives for teeth, new study finds

By Joanna Thompson

Zinc and manganese atoms keep tiny arthropods' natural tools sharper for longer.

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

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