Experiencing good quality sleep is more important than getting the recommended seven to nine hours when it comes to keeping illnesses at bay, a study suggests. New research has found that people who do not get quality sleep or enough sleep are nearly three times as likely to fall ill with colds, flu and other […]
The sex lives of constipated scorpions, cute ducklings with an innate sense of physics, and a life-size rubber moose may not appear to have much in common, but they all inspired the winners of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement. Held less than a month before the actual Nobel prizes are […]
A “brilliant fireball” seen in the skies above parts of the UK is believed to have been space debris, experts have said. The UK Meteor Network said it had received almost 800 reports after the blazing orb was spotted in the night sky on Wednesday. The organisation said that having studied many videos of the […]
Researchers have found an alternative way to extract high-purity silver from used solar panels. The metal is essential to the functioning of the panels, but the amount of naturally occurring silver found in ores is decreasing, making supply a concern for the future. This not only affects the production of photovoltaic (PV) cells – also […]
How fast you walk is just as important as how many steps you take in a day, research suggests. Studies found that walking 10,000 steps a day was associated with a lower risk of dementia, heart disease, cancer and death. But experts also found that a faster pace, like a power walk, showed benefits beyond […]
A malaria vaccine created by Oxford researchers “is really exciting” and could contribute towards drastically reducing the number of children who die from the infection, experts suggest. A new study reports on the effectiveness of a malaria booster vaccine which shows long-lasting high efficacy in African children, meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) specified 75% […]
Many more planets may have large amounts of water than previously thought – as much as half water and half rock, new research suggests. However, rather than flowing freely like the rivers on Earth, the water on these planets is likely to be embedded in the rock. All life on Earth needs water to survive, […]
The meteorite that wiped out Earth’s dinosaurs instantly ignited forest wildfires up to thousands of kilometres from its impact zone, scientists have discovered. The roughly six-mile-wide meteorite struck the Yucatan peninsula in what is now Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 million years ago. Its devastating impact brought the reign of the […]
The earliest known extinct mammal has been identified using fossil tooth records. Brasilodon quadrangularis was a small ‘shrew-like’ animal that measured around 20cm in length and had two sets of teeth. The tiny animal existed at the same time as some of the oldest dinosaurs and sheds light on the evolution of modern mammals, experts […]
Large dinosaur predators, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, evolved different shapes of eye sockets so they could have stronger bites, a new study suggests. Although the eye socket is just a hole in the skull housing the eyeball in many animals, and most dinosaurs, this is not the case for large carnivores. In a new study, […]
