Tag Archives: ScienceAlert

Ann Hodges never intended to be famous, but in 1954 she found herself thrust into the national spotlight when her afternoon nap was interrupted by a falling meteorite. The Alabama woman has the distinction of being the first documented case of a person being struck by a meteorite. She survived with a bruised hip. In June, a man nearly joined …

A patient with type 1 diabetes has begun producing his own insulin after receiving a transplant of pancreatic cells. For the first time in humans, these islet cells have been genetically edited so they wouldn’t be rejected by the patient, removing the need for immunosuppressant drugs. Type 1 diabetes usually begins when the immune system mistakenly attacks the islet cells …

Billions of sea stars have wasted away in recent years, their crustose, spiny bodies melted to goop by a mysterious illness known as sea star wasting disease. The culprit behind this epidemic has evaded detection, until now. Four years of gene sequencing and lab experiments have finally revealed the exact pathogen behind this devastating starfish plague – a bacterium called …

Molecules capable of forming the precursors to sugars and amino acids have been detected, for the first time, in the disk of dust and gas whirling around a newborn star. The detection is tentative, but it offers a window into how complex life gets its start from the chemistry in space, not just before planets are born, but even before …

A strange signal in the background hum created by a merger between two black holes could be the first ever detection of a system of three stellar-mass black holes locked in a gravitational waltz. According to a new analysis of data from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, data from a 2019 binary black hole collision showed signs of an anomalous acceleration that …

Take note of the name: ReHMGB1. A new study pinpoints this protein as being able to spread the wear and tear that comes with time as it quietly travels through the bloodstream. This adds significantly to our understanding of aging. Short for reduced high mobility group box 1, ReHMGB1 triggers senescence in cells, permanently disabling them. It doesn’t just do …

Rare malformations can cause animals to grow two heads – and it seems that kind of thing has been happening for millions of years. In 2006, paleontologists in China described a two-headed fossil from the age of dinosaurs. Hyphalosaurus is a small, aquatic reptile that lived more than 120 million years ago, and is known from thousands of fossils. But …

Rare malformations can cause animals to grow two heads – and it seems that kind of thing has been happening for millions of years. In 2006, paleontologists in China described a two-headed fossil from the age of dinosaurs. Hyphalosaurus is a small, aquatic reptile that lived more than 120 million years ago, and is known from thousands of fossils. But …

Astronomers at the Pan-STARRS Observatory in Hawaii made history in 2017 when they detected ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object (ISO) ever observed. Two years later, the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov became the second ISO ever observed. And on July 1st, 2025, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Rio Hurtado detected a third interstellar object in our Solar System, the …

Walk into any health store, scroll through TikTok, or browse the shelves of your favourite beauty retailer, and you’ll be met with a familiar promise: that a pill, powder or potion could be the secret to glowing skin, boosted energy, or even inner “detoxification.” Among the most hyped are chlorophyll – the green pigment in plants now found in trendy …