Museum drawers have revealed the fossilised remains of extinct giant echidnas, some as large as dogs. Image Credit: Twentieth century occurrence of the Long-Beaked Echidna Zaglossus bruijnii in the Kimberley region of Australia Study Fig 2 Hidden in the silent, air-conditioned backrooms of museums lie tales that have waited a hundred years to be told….
The chemist’s discovery helped transform the modern textiles industry forever. Image credit – Wikimedia William Henry Perkin, a London-based chemistry student, was conducting experiments in his home laboratory. He was attempting to prepare a drug, quinine, that is used to treat malaria. One particular experiment did not work out as intended. The failure resulted in…
A small lab mistake became one of electronics’ most important manufacturing methods. Image credit – Wikimedia Laboratory mistakes often lead to something extremely unusual. In fact, many groundbreaking scientific findings have come from minor mishaps. For instance, according to some accounts, Polish chemist Jan Czochralski accidentally dipped his pen into molten metal rather than ink…
The surprising way scientists are finding Roman ruins beneath the sea. Image credit – Wikimedia A Roman city can disappear from common eyes yet not be wiped out entirely. Roads and other structural features can leave behind faint signals underneath the water, which have been present there for centuries, sculpted by sedimentation, tide levels, and…
Greenland’s ice sheet holds layered climate records stretching back thousands of years. Image Credits: Google Gemini Most people are familiar with one version of the Greenland story: ice melting, seas rising, glaciers receding in time-lapse videos that make climate change seem real and immediate. That version is real, but it’s also incomplete, because underneath all…
James Watson (Image: Wikipedia) Science is often viewed as a world of complex theories, difficult equations and highly technical discoveries. Yet many of the greatest breakthroughs in history started with a surprisingly simple idea. This approach is neatly summed up in a single quote from James Watson, who said, “Worrying about complications before ruling out…
Archaeologists investigating Wogan Cavern beneath Pembroke Castle in Wales say the site could become one of Britain’s most important prehistoric discoveries. Hidden below the 11th-century castle, the cave has revealed evidence of human and animal activity dating back more than 100,000 years. Researchers have uncovered stone tools alongside bones from mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses,…
Norbert Wiener was one of the most unusual mathematicians of the 20th century: a child prodigy who graduated from Tufts at 14, earned a Harvard PhD at 18, and spent most of his career at MIT. During World War II, his work on anti-aircraft fire-control problems helped lead him to the idea of cybernetics, the…
Carl Jung (Image: Wikipedia) Some quotes remain relevant no matter how much society changes. They live on through generations because they talk about emotions that almost everyone has at some point in their life. One such quote comes from the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung, whose writings about the human mind, personality, emotions, and…
The Universe keeps throwing up surprises, and black holes are right at the centre of it. The biggest ones detected so far do not seem to fit the usual story of how stars die. A new study reportedly suggests that these extreme objects might not form in a single collapse at all. Instead, they could…
