Diagnostic dilemma: Improper use of a massage gun tore holes in a man’s retinas
The patient: A man in his 20s in Edinburgh, U.K. The symptoms: The man visited an eye clinic after noticing floaters — small, dark shapes
Category: Science
Young gulls’ drab plumage may help them avoid adult attacks
Fake, painted decoys suggest immature coloring acts as a social signal, reducing aggression from territorial nesting gulls.
This space telescope is falling. A robotic spacecraft may save it
A private rocket mission aims to boost NASA’s Swift telescope before its orbit decays, extending its hunt for gamma-ray bursts.
Scientists propose launching a giant ‘airbag’ into space to protect us from solar superstorms — and experts say it’s ‘quite feasible’
Researchers have proposed creating a novel satellite constellation, dubbed StormWall, that could shield Earth from the worst effects of solar “superstorms” that we are otherwise
Study suggests life on Earth has around 1.8 billion years left — but the biosphere might evolve to survive even longer
Life on Earth could continue for another 1.8 billion years, according to new research. This figure, which is based on complex climate models, is far
Dead-end bitcoin mining wastes as much energy as Switzerland’s entire hydropower generation capacity
Network latency in bitcoin mining is driving massive energy waste — the annual equivalent of the total generation capacity of Switzerland’s entire hydroelectric power system
CERN shuts down Large Hadron Collider until 2030, upgrading the atom smasher to its most powerful form yet
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful atom smasher, has entered a planned four-year shutdown that will upgrade it to its
Bull’s-eye! Enormous ‘bow and arrow’ galaxy is unlike anything radio astronomers have ever seen — Space photo of the week
Quick facts What it is: RAD-Bow-And-Arrow Radio Galaxy Where it is: 2 billion light-years from Earth When it was shared: June 22, 2026 The universe
Starry Chandelier Cluster
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the globular cluster NGC 6723, sometimes called the Chandelier Cluster.
500-year-old freeze-dried potato snacks discovered in Inca storage room in Peru
Two lumps of potato discovered in a roughly 500-year-old Inca storage room in Peru are a rare find: freeze-dried potatoes predating the Spanish invasion, a
66 billion trees have been planted in China’s Great Green Wall — and they appear to be growing faster than natural forests
Trees in China that were planted as part of huge reforestation projects appear to grow faster than those in natural forests, a new study finds.
Scientists figured out how to shrink huge ultrafast lasers so they fit on a tiny chip — the ‘holy grail’ of the field
A breakthrough in photonic chips could make large, costly, ultrafast lasers dramatically smaller, leading to portable and affordable imaging, diagnostic and information-processing devices, researchers say.
This microbe turns into a cannibalistic ‘Hulk’
Euplotes gigatrox’s shape-shifting may reveal how early life learned to act in surprisingly complex ways.
Crabs can’t hide from an octopus with a mirror
New experiments show that octopuses can understand where an item is based solely on its reflection.