Tantalizing evidence hints that dark energy might be evolving, leading some cosmologists to suggest that our universe will collapse in a "Big Crunch" sooner than expected.

Over the past year, massive surveys of galaxies by both the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) have revealed that dark energy — the mysterious force that's accelerating the expansion of the universe — might be changing with time. If this observation holds, it would be a paradigm-shifting result because it would mean our simplest model of dark energy, called the cosmological constant, is wrong.

With this new result, there is plenty of room for theoretical exploration into possible explanations and radical new theories of the cosmos. One of those, presented in a paper in June but not yet peer-reviewed, proposes a complex model for dark energy that allows for surprising behavior.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers led by Abubakar Fadul from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has discovered complex organic molecules—including the first tentative detection of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile—in the protoplanetary disk of the outbursting protostar V883 Orionis.

These compounds are considered precursors to the building blocks of life. Comparing different cosmic environments reveals that the abundance and complexity of such molecules increase from star-forming regions to fully evolved planetary systems. This suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and are widespread.

The Emu War (or Great Emu War) was a nuisance wildlife management military operation undertaken in Australia over the later part of 1932 to address public concern over the number of emus, large flightless birds indigenous to Australia, said to have been destroying crops in the Campion district within the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. The unsuccessful attempts to curb the emu population employed Royal Australian Artillery soldiers armed with Lewis guns—leading the media to adopt the name "Emu War" when referring to the incident. Although many birds were killed, the emu population persisted and continued to cause crop destruction.

On 2 November, the men travelled to Campion, where some 50 emus were sighted. As the birds were out of range of the guns, the local settlers attempted to herd the emus into an ambush, but the birds split into small groups and ran so that they were difficult to target. Nevertheless, while the first fusillade from the machine guns was ineffective due to the range, a second round of gunfire was able to kill "a number" of birds. Later the same day a small flock was encountered, and "perhaps a dozen" birds were killed.

The next significant event was on 4 November. Meredith had established an ambush near a local dam, and more than 1,000 emus were spotted heading towards their position. This time, the gunners waited until the birds were in close proximity before opening fire. The gun jammed after only 12 birds were killed, and the remainder scattered before any more could be shot. No more birds were sighted that day.

In the days that followed, Meredith chose to move further south, where the birds were "reported to be fairly tame", but there was only limited success despite his efforts.  By the fourth day of the campaign, army observers noted that "each pack seems to have its own leader now—a big black-plumed bird which stands fully 1.8 m (6 ft) high and keeps watch while his mates carry out their work of destruction and warns them of our approach".  At one stage, Meredith even went so far as to mount one of the guns on a truck, a move that proved to be ineffective, as the truck was unable to gain on the birds, and the ride was so rough that the gunner was unable to fire any shots. By 8 November, six days after the first engagement, 2,500 rounds of ammunition had been fired. The number of birds killed is uncertain: one account estimates that it was 50 birds, but other accounts range from 200 to 500, the latter figure being provided by the settlers.

Meredith's official report noted that his men had suffered no casualties, except for their dignity.

After the withdrawal, Major Meredith compared the emus to Zulus and commented on the striking manoeuvrability of the emus, even while badly wounded.

If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds, it would face any army in the world ... They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop.

Researchers conclude that the Newall boulder is a piece of Craig Rhos-y-Felin rhyolite, most likely broken from a monolith such as Stone 32d. All mineralogical, geochemical, and field data support human transport to Stonehenge by Neolithic people with no evidence to support glacial movement of the stone.

In discrediting the glacial hypothesis for the presence of the Newall boulder, the research bolsters the case for all of the bluestones on the plain to be the result of ancient human efforts.

A ceramic pot and the shell of a turtle, once hunted for its meat, are the most recent traces of an Indigenous community thought to live deep in the north Brazilian Amazon.

Archaeological finds like these keep turning up, and date back to at least 2009, with members of a neighboring clan claiming to have caught glimpses of individuals who live in the Ituna/Itata region in Brazil's northern Para state.

For now, the nameless, elusive people—perhaps belonging to more than one group—remain among dozens of so-called "uncontacted" communities believed to roam the world's biggest rainforest.

Yahya Jammeh's 22-year rule of The Gambia was marked by gross human rights violations, including torture, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. In 2008–09, Jammeh embarked on a “witch hunt” campaign, mostly targeting poor and elderly men and women. Among the physical and psychological consequences of this activity were significant levels of stigma. In the context of transitional justice, this paper examines the experiences and consequences of stigma associated with witchcraft accusations for victims, their families, and communities.

This mixed-method study found evidence of social rejection, isolation, and negative effects on mental health. Families suffered social exclusion, bullying, and loss of educational opportunities.

Whole communities also experienced social divisions and a loss of reputation. While some of these had improved over time, problems persisted 13 years later. Participants made a range of suggestions for reconciliation, including public declarations of innocence, making witchcraft accusations illegal, and both external and community-led interventions to tackle stigma.

The idea of alien probes wandering the cosmos may sound strange, but humans sent out a few ourselves in the 1970s. Both Voyager 1 and 2 have officially left our Solar System, and Pioneer 10 and 11 are not far behind.

So it’s not a stretch to think that alien civilisations – if they exist – would have launched their own galactic explorers.

However, this brings us to a crucial question: short of little green men popping out to say hello, how would we actually know if 3I/ATLAS, or any other interstellar object, was an alien probe?

We may never know

Without clear signs one way or the other, however, it may be impossible to know if some interstellar objects are natural or alien-made.

Objects like 3I/ATLAS remind us that space is vast, strange, and full of surprises. Most of them have natural explanations. But the strangest objects are worth a second look.

For now, 3I/ATLAS is likely just an unusually fast, old and icy visitor from a distant system. But it also serves as a test case: a chance to refine the way we search, observe and ask questions about the universe.

Here, we document the first multitaxic dinosaur footprint assemblage from the Dinosaur Park Formation based on a new locality that contains multiple individual ceratopsids, two tyrannosaurids, a possible ankylosaurian, and a small theropod-like taxon.

Although it is impossible to tell the relative timing between the formation of the various tracks, several lines of evidence imply some level of synchronicity and, therefore, gregariousness or herding behaviour among Ceratopsipes trackmakers. In particular, the similar orientations, uniform spacing between individuals, and similar track characteristics (e.g., extrusive rims, slide marks) suggest the Ceratopsipes tracks were made at a time when sediment consistency was the same across much of the site, probably by a herd of animals traveling in the same direction. The Ceratopsipes tracks are furthermore oriented roughly perpendicular to and heading towards the ripple-laminated surface along the southwestern edge of the quarry, which indicates that these animals were moving towards the waterline, perhaps to drink.

Similarly, the tyrannosaurid tracks indicate two individuals walking adjacent to one another but parallel to the waterline (rather than towards it, as is the case for the ceratopsid tracks).

The rubber hand illusion is a bizarre multisensory trick where people start believing a fake hand is their own. It involves hiding a person's real hand behind a screen and placing a fake one in front of them on a table, and then stroking both simultaneously.

The illusion was first demonstrated by Matthew Botvinick and Jonathan Cohen in 1998, and it was later shown that monkeys and mice also fall for the same trick.

The research shows that even invertebrates, whose brains are vastly different from ours, also possess a sense of body ownership similar to humans. Studying these creatures could therefore tell us more about this key component of self-perception.

Contact with hostile extraterrestrial life could be a significant threat to humanity. However, the nature of such an event would be contingent upon various factors such as their level of technological advancement, biological makeup, cultural norms, intentions, and methods of communication.

Confrontation and Aftermath

In the unfortunate event of an actual attack, the nature of the confrontation would depend on their method of warfare and our defensive capabilities. Post-conflict, depending on the outcome, humanity would likely need to address the damage and take necessary measures for recovery and future preparedness.

The aftermath might also involve re-evaluating our place in the universe and reassessing how we can better prepare for potential future encounters of similar nature.

It’s worth noting that this is a highly speculative scenario. The true nature of any extraterrestrial contact, hostile or friendly, would be incredibly unpredictable and would likely present challenges and opportunities far beyond our current comprehension.

Published Mar 29, 2025, 09:00am EDT Updated Mar 31, 2025, 10:04am EDT

Project Sun Streak Seeks Ark Of The Covenant

No one has proven the Ark’s existence, much less found its location if it does exist. That didn’t stop the U.S. government from investigating it as part of a 1980s project meant to harness psychic powers. A Project Sun Streak session in 1988 involved a purported psychic describing the location and appearance of the Ark of the Covenant using the powers of the mind.

The CIA first published the declassified Project Sun Streak document concerning the Ark in 2000, so it’s not fresh news. It seems to have reemerged into the spotlight thanks to social media chatter.

The government’s psychic programs experimented with extrasensory perception, telepathy and remote viewing — the alleged ability to gather information about distant objects without actually seeing or interacting with them. Remote viewing was the technique employed in the search for the Ark. The supposed psychic subject was given coordinates and then asked to describe a target there.

A session typically consisted of a remote viewer and an interviewer or monitor who guided the process. The session summary for the Ark includes the subject’s description of the target as a container with another container inside. “The target is fashioned of wood, gold and silver,” the document said. The target was said to be located in the Middle East with mosque domes nearby. “The target is hidden — underground, dark and wet were all aspects of the location of the target,” it said.

The test subject said the object had the purpose of bringing people together and was connected to “ceremony, memory, homage, the resurrection” with an aspect of spirituality. The target was supposedly protected and could only be opened by those authorized to do so. “Individuals opening the container by prying or striking are destroyed by the container’s protectors through the use of a power unknown to us,” the summary read. A crude illustration in the document shows a single winged figure, though it looks more like a bird than a cherub.

A new analysis of an exquisitely preserved fossil that lived half a billion years ago suggests that arachnids—spiders and their close kin—evolved in the ocean, challenging the widely held belief that their diversification happened only after their common ancestor had conquered the land.

Spiders and scorpions have existed for some 400 million years, with little change. Along with closely related arthropods grouped together as arachnids, they have dominated Earth as the most successful group of arthropodan predators. Based on their fossil record, arachnids appeared to have lived and diversified exclusively on land.

Earth will complete a full rotation in slightly less time than usual on Tuesday, July 22, making it one of the shortest days ever recorded.

The difference will be just 1.34 milliseconds less than the standard 24 hours — not something you'll notice — but it's part of a puzzling trend in Earth's rotational behavior that has been unfolding in recent years. If it continues, a second may need to be subtracted from atomic clocks around 2029 — a so-called negative leap second, which has never been done before.

In the study, rats received 10 days of tickling training, during which period researchers measured their 50 kHz vocalizations. While the rats rarely emitted 50 kHz vocalizations initially, they consistently produced these vocalizations in response to tickling starting on day five. These vocalizations became more frequent through day 10, indicating that repeated tickling produced pleasant sensations in rats.

At the end of the training period, rats were administered a conditioned place preference test. The rats expressed affinity for repeated tickling by spending more time in the tickling room after the test as compared to before.

At this early stage of its passage through our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS, the recently discovered interstellar interloper, has displayed various anomalous characteristics, determined from photometric and astrometric observations.

As largely a pedagogical exercise, in this paper we present additional analysis into the astrodynamics of 3I/ATLAS, and hypothesize that this object could be technological, and possibly hostile as would be expected from the 'Dark Forest' resolution to the 'Fermi Paradox'.

We show that 3I/ATLAS approaches surprisingly close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter, with a probability of ≲%. Furthermore the low retrograde tilt of 3I/ATLAS's orbital plane to the ecliptic offers various benefits to an Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (ETI), since it allows the object access to our planet with relative impunity.

The eclipse by the Sun from Earth of 3I/ATLAS at perihelion, would allow it to conduct a clandestine reverse Solar Oberth Manoeuvre, an optimal high-thrust strategy for interstellar spacecraft to brake and stay bound to the Sun.

An optimal intercept of Earth would entail an arrival in late November/early December of 2025, and also, a non-gravitational acceleration of au day, normalized at 1 au from the Sun, would indicate an intent to intercept the planet Jupiter, not far off its path, and a strategy to rendezvous with it after perihelion.

This paper publishes the editio princeps of an Early Dynastic IIIb tablet from Nippur, which contains a unique yet fragmentary Sumerian narrative about the storm god Iškur’s captivity in the netherworld, from which he appears to be rescued by Fox. While the incomplete state of preservation prevents a reconstruction of the plot, individual motifs can be traced across the entire cuneiform corpus, allowing for a preliminary case study of continuity and change over more than two millennia of Mesopotamian mythological literature.

A phylogenetic analysis places P. qinglong as one of the earliest-diverging neornithischians yet described. Moreover, P. qinglong represents the second known dinosaur to preserve ossified laryngeal elements, thus suggesting that a bird-like vocalization evolved early in non-avian dinosaur evolution.

Small anatomical details can significantly influence how marine animals organize themselves, yet such interactions are rarely visible in fossils. We report exceptionally preserved soft, bristle-like structures ("setae") on 436-My-old brachiopods, enabling analysis of ancient behavior. Using advanced imaging and statistical analysis, we identified a regular, checkerboard-like spacing pattern among these organisms, closely corresponding to their setae length. This demonstrates that these delicate structures played an important role in maintaining spacing between individuals, thereby influencing population organization on the ancient seabed. Our findings point to a previously unrecognized mechanism shaping ecosystem structure in deep time, demonstrating how subtle anatomical features could exert notable ecological impacts in their ancient environments.

Hromundar saga Gripsonnar was also written in the 14th century and relates events reported to have occurred at the start of the 11th century. The hero Hromundr goes into battle against an ex-berserker warrior and an undead witch king called Thrainn, who is a draugr. He was previously a Gallic king and used sorcery for his evil ends in life. Thrainn had previously killed 420 men singlehandedly, including Saemingr, the legendary first king of Norway, with an enchanted sword called Mistletoe. He reportedly entered his burial mound while still alive, actively choosing to become undead.

Sailing to Gaul with the express purpose of entering Thrainn’s burial mound, Hromundr was the only man of a team of 60 brave enough to enter and attempt to kill it. He finds the king sitting in a chair, and he is described as ugly, with blue skin, and clad in gold. Hromundr steals the king’s sword and then challenges him to fight, but the weary draugr is uninterested in the battle. After much goading from Hromundr, Thrainn rises to the conflict but insists that they wrestle since he is unarmed without his sword.

The draugr uses his fingernails as talons and scratches the hero’s neck but is overpowered. Before being slain, Thrainn warns Hromundr of the dangers of prioritizing wealth over the truly important things in life. Unmoved, Hromundr beheads the draugr with his own sword and then sets his body on fire. Later, when his companions ask him what happened, Hromudr suggests that Thrainn died by choice.

​​In pursuit of prestige and riches, wealthy people across medieval Europe worked in vain to transmute everyday metals into gold. Today, this process, known as chrysopoeia, is mostly dismissed as an alchemical dream. But is there any science to show that metals can be turned into gold?

In fact, there is — but it would be far from a profitable business, evidence shows.

The idea of transmuting metals to gold goes back to ancient Greece and the philosopher Zosimos of Panopolis. He believed transforming lesser metals into gold was a reflection of the purification and redemption of the soul and the work had a deep spiritual significance. When the concept reemerged in medieval Europe, it was with a purely practical focus — converting a cheap metal into gold was a sure fire route to riches.

KASA, which was established just last year, aims to develop homegrown lunar landing and roving technology, as well as the ability to extract and exploit moon resources such as water ice.

Some of this work is already underway. For example, the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources recently deployed prototype lunar rovers in an abandoned coal mine, testing tech that could be used for space mining down the road.

And South Korea already has some experience at and around the moon. In August 2022, the nation launched its first moon probe — called the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter or Danuri — atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Danuri reached lunar orbit four months later and is still going strong, studying the moon with its suite of instruments.

UFO sightings have plummeted across Britain - because people are too glued to their mobile phones. Having previously been bombarded with hundreds of 999 calls over flying saucers, a police probe suggests UFO reports have dried up in the past year.

Some forces - like Cheshire and Gwent - revealed they had no record of any close encounters so far in 2025. It is a far cry from the galactic goggling in the 80s and 90s, when the likes of The X Files had Brits scouring the stars for little green men.

However, Britain’s leading UFO investigator thinks we are still being visited by extraterrestrials - just that we’ve stopped noticing.

The Eastern Italian Alps played a crucial bridging role between Mediterranean and Northern alpine populations since Prehistory.

However, few prehistoric individuals from that region have been genomically analysed so far. Among them, the Iceman (Copper Age, 3368-3108 BC) showed a relatively high Anatolian-Neolithic-related ancestry and low Hunter-Gatherers (HGs)-related ancestry.

To investigate how the genomic structure of alpine groups varied over time and to contextualize the Iceman, we analysed 47 alpine individuals dated from the Mesolithic (6380-6107 BC) to Middle Bronze Age (1601-1295 BC).

The Mesolithic genome reveals genetic admixture between Western and Eastern HGs that occurred from ~13700 − 8300 BC. Most individuals from the Neolithic onwards present a genomic structure resembling that of the Iceman, supporting genetic continuity. Few individuals carry different ancestries, such as the Steppe-related ones appearing ~2400 BC.

Finally, the study suggests local and non-local admixture events between HGs and Neolithic farmers from this alpine area.

With the weakened magnetic field, more harmful radiation would have reached Earth's surface, elevating risk of sunburn, eye damage, birth defects, and other health issues.

In response, people may have adopted practical measures: spending more time in caves, producing tailored clothing for better coverage, or applying mineral pigment "sunscreen" made of ochre to their skin. As we describe in our recent paper, the frequency of these behaviors indeed appears to have increased across parts of Europe, where effects of the Laschamps Excursion were pronounced and prolonged.

People have long wondered what life was first like on Earth, and if there is life in our solar system beyond our planet. Scientists have reason to believe that some of the moons in our solar system—like Jupiter's Europa and Saturn's Enceladus—may contain deep, salty liquid oceans under an icy shell. Seafloor volcanoes could heat these moons' oceans and provide the basic chemicals needed for life.

Similar deep-sea volcanoes found on Earth support microbial life that lives inside solid rock without sunlight and oxygen. Some of these microbes, called thermophiles, live at temperatures hot enough to boil water on the surface. They grow from the chemicals coming out of active volcanoes.

Because these microorganisms existed before there was photosynthesis or oxygen on Earth, scientists think these deep-sea volcanoes and microbes could resemble the earliest habitats and life on Earth, and beyond.