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.

It was 27 October 1954, a typically crisp autumn day in Tuscany. The mighty Fiorentina club was playing against its local rival Pistoiese.

Ten-thousand fans were watching in the concrete bowl of the Stadio Artemi Franchi. But just after half-time the stadium fell eerily silent - then a roar went up from the crowd. The spectators were no longer watching the match, but were looking up at the sky, fingers pointing. The players stopped playing, the ball rolled to a stand-still.

Play was suspended because spectators saw something in the sky, according to the referee's match report.

The incident at the stadium cannot simply be interpreted as mass hysteria - there were numerous UFO sightings in many towns across Tuscany that day and over the days that followed. According to some eyewitness accounts a ray of white light was seen in the sky coming from Prato, north of Florence.

It is a fact that at the same time the UFOs were seen over Florence there was a strange, sticky substance falling from above. In English we call this 'angel hair'.

Uranus, with its extreme axial tilt and enigmatic energy balance, presents a particularly compelling case. In this study, we present the global-average radiant energy budget spanning a complete orbital period (1946–2030) based on observations and modeling, revealing significant seasonal variations driven primarily by Uranus' highly variable solar flux.

Despite these fluctuations, our results show that emitted thermal power consistently exceeds absorbed solar power, indicating a net energy loss. From these seasonal variations, we determine a statistically significant internal heat flux, resolving the long-standing debate on its magnitude. Furthermore, we analyze the energy budget of Uranus' weather layer by integrating internal heat with radiant energies, uncovering substantial energy imbalances at both global and hemispheric scales.

This is the first study to quantify seasonal energy imbalances on Uranus. Our findings provide critical insights into the planet's thermal dynamics for future investigations, including those by a potential flagship mission to Uranus.

Mercury’s exosphere contains various neutral species, including hydrogen, helium, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, iron, and manganese.

Although lithium has been predicted to exist, it had not been detected until now. Here, we demonstrate the presence of lithium in Mercury’s exosphere, using data from the Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft.

The sporadic detection of lithium suggests its meteoritic origin, likely released through evaporation caused by sporadic meteoroid impacts.

Our findings provide strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that (micro-)meteoroids and larger meteoroids, which have continuously and sporadically impacted Mercury’s surface over billions of years, are a significant source of volatile elements and contributed substantially to Mercury’s unexpectedly volatile-rich surface.

This detection emphasizes the significant role of meteoroids in shaping Mercury’s exosphere and provides insights into the planet’s evolution and the history of volatile elements in the Solar System.

Most faunas from the Mesozoic era were dominated by sauropod dinosaurs, the largest terrestrial animals to ever exist. These megaherbivores were remarkably diverse and widely distributed. Here we study three Late Jurassic faunas from the USA, Portugal and Tanzania, each approximately 150 million years old, which are known for their extreme sauropod diversity.

Our results demonstrate that dental microwear texture analysis not only records dietary preferences but also reveals behaviour such as competition and migration related to dietary niches in past ecosystems.

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed our interactions, but threatens human dignity on a worldwide scale, according to a study led by Charles Darwin University (CDU).

The study, "Human dignity in the age of Artificial Intelligence: an overview of legal issues and regulatory regimes," was published in the Australian Journal of Human Rights.

Study lead author Dr. Maria Randazzo, an academic from CDU's School of Law, found the technology was reshaping Western legal and ethical landscapes at unprecedented speed but was undermining democratic values and deepening systemic biases.

How frequently do you think about fasteners like screws and bolts? Probably not very often. But some of them a storied history, dating back to Egypt in the 3rd century BC. They aren’t just ancient history. They help hold up our bridges and homes today. Join us as we dissect a handful of engineering inventions that keep our world spinning and intact.

Other ideas might be worth entertaining too, however. For example, could these be some kind of snowshoes or winter boots meant to allow extra layers of padding or multiple pairs of socks to be worn?

Could these large shoes be an attempt to cope with the bitter shock of a British winter? Or instead, could these shoes have a medical purpose, perhaps to allow people with swollen feet or people utilising medical dressings to wear shoes?

A 2,200-year-old Celtic settlement containing several hundred coins and over 1,000 pieces of jewelry has been discovered in the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic.

The site, "unparalleled in its scale and character in Bohemia," held a vast number of ancient riches, including amber and fine pottery, Museum of Eastern Bohemia representatives said in a translated statement. The site was not fortified, suggesting that the people who lived were major players in regional trade.

The settlement was discovered by archaeologists who were surveying the area before a motorway was built. In addition to the valuable artifacts, they found the remains of buildings, including dwellings, production facilities and at least one religious sanctuary, according to the statement.

International researchers have, for the first time, pinpointed the moment when planets began to form around a star beyond the Sun. Using the ALMA telescope, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, and the James Webb Space Telescope, they have observed the creation of the first specks of planet-forming material — hot minerals just beginning to solidify. This finding marks the first time a planetary system has been identified at such an early stage in its formation and opens a window to the past of our own Solar System.

In conclusion, we have demonstrated quantum state teleportation over a 30.2-km fiber that is populated with high-power 400-Gbps conventional data traffic. By employing various methods to suppress SpRS noise, teleportation fidelity was well maintained alongside elevated classical powers capable of transmitting many Tbps aggregate data rates. We further investigated multiple key questions for optimizing teleportation-based applications and identified challenges facing the deployment of future quantum networks. Altogether, this work demonstrates a significant step towards ensuring that complex multi-photon/multi-node quantum network applications can be realized anywhere in the existing fiber infrastructure.

Mount Thor is a remote mountain in Canada with the largest vertical drop in the world. The mountain is just under 5,500 feet (1,675 meters) tall — but its most striking feature is its west face, which is so steep that it actually curves back on itself.

An object falling from the top of Mount Thor's western cliff would plummet 4,100 feet (1,250 m) before hitting anything. If a human were to jump off the summit and not deploy a parachute, they would remain in the air for a terrifying 26 seconds.

At some point during the evolution of life on Earth, inorganic matter became organic, nonliving matter became living. How this happened is one of humankind's greatest mysteries. Today, scientists work to develop synthetic cells that mimic living cells, hoping to uncover clues that will help answer the question: how did life on Earth begin?

While there's no single definition of life, three elements recur across biology:

• compartmentalization—a barrier that separates a cell's interior from the environment;
• metabolism—building up and breaking down molecules to carry out cell function; and
• selection—a process in which certain molecules are favored over others.

In the past, researchers have focused on compartmentalization, but not on metabolism. Yet this cycle of building up and breaking down molecules is a critical aspect of how living cells respond to environmental stimuli, replicate and evolve.

Paper:

**Abiotic lipid metabolism enables membrane plasticity in artificial cells **

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-025-01829-5

Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths to which some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar—a taste for ants and termites.

Findings published in Evolution reveal that mammals independently evolved specialized adaptations for exclusively feeding on ants and termites at least 12 times since the Cenozoic era began, roughly 66 million years ago.

Neanderthals lived in the nearby caves of Amud and Kebara between 50 and 60,000 years ago, using the same tools and hunting the same prey. But scientists studying the cutmarks on the remains of their prey have found that the two groups seem to have butchered their food in visibly different ways, which can’t be explained by the skill of the butchers or the resources or tools used at each site. These differences could represent distinct cultural food practices, such as drying meat before butchering it.

• The report examined reports of UAPs

• It recommended sharing of reports and an office to investigate

• The report noted there is no evidence of extraterrestrials

Canada’s top scientist is recommending the creation of a new federal body to collect and investigate UFO sightings after a report was released on the subject.

Also called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), the preferred term used by governments and scientists seeking to avoid the stigma associated with UFOs, the topic of strange objects in the sky has been in the headlines recently.

The report notes that new technology and increased aerial activity can lead to an increased number of sightings that are, at least to the observer, unexplained.

“Whether satellites, drones, planes or atmospheric events, no one would deny that there is more and more activity in the skies above us.,” the report reads. “Our ability to understand what we observe depends on a multitude of factors, such as time of day, cloud cover, distance and colour contrast.”

“Rarely does anyone mistake a flock of geese flying in V formation for a fighter squadron flying at high altitudes,” it continues. “But sometimes what is being observed in the sky is not immediately clear, and a person may wonder if what they are seeing is a natural phenomenon, a new type of aircraft or something else altogether.”

A critical part of understanding and identifying habitable worlds is understanding how their atmospheres evolve, including atmospheric escape. Atmospheric escape is a natural part of planetary evolution, and it has occurred throughout Earth's history. However, it was much more pronounced in Earth's early history, due to the Sun's energetic output and more frequent impacts from asteroids and comets. In current times, the escape is minimal, though steady.

Since atmospheric escape is much more pronounced in a planet's early years, it can shape its future habitability.

Many former leaders of the world's nine nuclear-armed nations were impaired by health conditions while in office, raising concerns over their decision-making abilities while they had access to nuclear weapon launch codes, a study from the University of Otago, New Zealand, has found.

The study analyzed the health information of 51 deceased leaders of nuclear-armed countries: China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Eight of the leaders died from chronic disease while still in office, five from heart attacks or strokes. Many of the leaders had multiple serious health issues while in office, including dementia, personality disorders, depression and drug and alcohol abuse.

The meteorite is more evidence that volcanism continued throughout this period on the moon; Chang'e 5 has found such evidence in its samples from the moon's farside of volcanism in the past 123 million years. Together, these discoveries are transforming what we thought we thought we knew about the moon's volcanism and how the moon has remained geologically active, at least in bursts, almost to the present day.

The next step is to pinpoint the meteorite's origin on the moon: likely a crater blasted into the surface by an impact that ejected the meteorite long ago. Once identified, it will be a prime location for a future sample-return mission to learn more about lunar volcanism during this little-known period, from which so few samples exist.

Since 2012, The Skeptic has had the pleasure of awarding the Ockham Awards – our annual awards celebrating the very best work from within the skeptical community. The awards were founded because we wanted to draw attention to those people who work hard to get a great message out. The Ockhams recognise the effort and time that have gone into the community’s favourite campaigns, activism, blogs, podcasts, and outstanding contributors to the skeptical cause.

Nominations for the 2025 Ockham Awards are now open! Simply complete the nomination form to submit your nominations.

The fact that 2023 KQ14 now follows an orbit different from the other sednoids indicates that the outer solar system is more diverse and complex than previously thought. This discovery also places new constraints on the hypothetical Planet Nine. If Planet Nine exists, its orbit must lie farther out than typically predicted.

The legality of cannibalism in the U.S. is rarely addressed by a single law, but is instead governed by a complex web of existing statutes.

The legality of cannibalism in the United States raises the question of whether consuming human flesh is a crime by itself. Understanding the legal landscape requires examining how different laws interact to address this act.

The Federal Stance on Cannibalism

There is no single federal law in the United States that explicitly outlaws cannibalism. The federal government leaves such matters to the states, as federal law focuses on crimes that cross state lines or affect the country as a whole.

From a federal perspective, the consumption of human flesh is not a named offense. Any prosecution related to cannibalism would not proceed through the federal court system unless another federal crime was also committed.

State Laws Prohibiting Cannibalism

Like the federal government, almost all states lack a statute that specifically prohibits cannibalism. In 49 states, there is no law making the consumption of human flesh, by itself, illegal.

The one exception is Idaho. Under Idaho Code § 18-5003, it is a felony to willfully ingest the flesh or blood of a human being. The statute provides an exception for situations where the act is necessary to survive a life-threatening condition. A conviction under this law can result in a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

While cannibalism itself is rarely illegal, the actions required to obtain a body for consumption almost always are. The most obvious related crime is murder, which is the unlawful killing of another human being. Regardless of whether the victim consented to be killed and consumed, the act remains a homicide.

Legality of Consuming Human Remains

Even in scenarios where no homicide or assault occurs, such as finding a body or receiving one by consent after a natural death, consuming the remains is still illegal. This is because every state has laws governing the proper handling and disposal of human bodies. These statutes make it a crime to abuse, desecrate, or improperly handle a corpse.

Acts like dismembering a body for consumption would fall under statutes for desecration of a human corpse. For example, some state codes explicitly define desecration to include any act of mutilation or dismemberment. Violating these laws is typically a felony and carries penalties that can include several years in prison and substantial fines.

These regulations effectively close any potential legal loopholes for so-called “consensual” cannibalism. Even if an individual were to legally donate their body for this purpose in a will, the act of consuming it would still be prevented by laws against corpse desecration. Grave robbing to acquire a body is a separate felony.

Here we report the discovery of a metre-long front flipper of the large-bodied Jurassic ichthyosaur Temnodontosaurus, including unique details of its soft-tissue anatomy. In addition to revealing a wing-like planform, the fossil preserves a serrated trailing edge that is reinforced by novel cartilaginous integumental elements, herein denominated chondroderms.

We also document chordwise-parallel skin ornamentations and a protracted fleshy distal tip that presumably acted like a flexible winglet in life.

By integrating morphological and numerical data, we show that the observed features probably provided hydroacoustic benefits, and conclude that the visually guided Temnodontosaurus relied on stealth while hunting in dim-lit pelagic environments.

This unexpected combination of control surface modifications represents a previously unrecognized mode of concealment, and underscores the importance of soft-tissue fossils when inferring aspects of palaeoethology and predator–prey palaeoecology.

The presence and stability of brines on Mars’s surface remain a significant mystery in planetary exploration. Previous mechanisms proposed for brine formation include melting of ice-salt mixtures and salt deliquescence. However, melting lacks a recharge mechanism, and deliquescence is impeded by Mars’s extreme surface aridity.

This study explores an underexplored process: the role of seasonal frost in brine formation. Utilizing meteorological data from the Viking 2 lander—the only mission, with Phoenix, to observe in situ water frost formation—I demonstrate that brines can form over approximately 30 sols at the end of winter as frost sublimates.

The stable brines exhibit a water activity upper limit of 0.52, corresponding to the eutectic point of calcium perchlorate, a salt detected in various Martian regions, likely including the Viking 2 landing site.

Consequently, I conclude that calcium perchlorate can generate small amounts of liquid brine in contact with frost for brief periods.

The seasonal nature of frost suggests these brines recur and may leave long-term imprints. Therefore,frost-covered regions are prime candidates for future habitability and astrobiological exploration.

Origins of the Púca

The Púca’s origins are rooted in ancient Irish folklore. The term ‘Púca’ is derived from the Old Irish ‘púcán’, meaning ‘goblin’, but it has been interpreted in various ways, including ‘ghost’, ‘sprite’, or ‘fairy’. It is part of the broader group of supernatural entities known as the Aos Sí or ‘People of the Mounds’, who were believed to inhabit the Irish landscape.

The Púca has parallels in other cultures as well. For example, the English ‘Puck’, a mischievous hobgoblin immortalized in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, shares similar attributes. These cross-cultural connections underscore the universal human fascination with trickster figures and shape-shifting entities.

https://www.irishhistory.com/myths-legends/mythical-creatures/the-puca-a-shape-shifting-trickster-in-irish-folklore/