South African telescope discovers a giant galaxy that’s 32 times bigger than Earth’s: Inkathazo's glowing plasma jets are shown in red and yellow. The starlight from other surrounding galaxies can be seen in the background. K.K.L Charlton (UCT), MeerKAT, HSC, CARTA, IDIA, CC BY You may not know it, but right now there’s a huge …
Giant freshwater aquifer in southern Africa is under threat from mining: A huge underground water resource the size of Austria, the Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer System, stretches for 87,000km² across Namibia, South Africa and Botswana. It supplies 50,000 people in several towns with water pure enough to drink, and is their only source of water. But …
How a teenager helped identify a new species of giant marine reptile: Artist's impression of a washed-up Ichthyotitan severnensis carcass on the beach. Sergey Krasovskiy, CC BY-SA It may be difficult to imagine, but the county of Somerset in south-west England was once home to what may have been the largest marine reptiles that ever lived, my …
Do we live in a giant void? It could solve the puzzle of the universe’s expansion: Pablo Carlos Budassi/wikipedia, CC BY-SA One of the biggest mysteries in cosmology is the rate at which the universe is expanding. This can be predicted using the standard model of cosmology, also known as Lambda-cold dark matter (?CDM). This …
Umaru Shehu: Nigerian public health giant who played a major role in polio eradication: Professor Emeritus Umaru Shehu, who died on 2 October 2023, was born in Yerwa (Maiduguri), Nigeria, in 1930. Widely regarded as one of the country’s early leaders in public health policy and practice, he was the first public health physician in …
COP28: inside the United Arab Emirates, the oil giant hosting 2023 climate change summit: The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the world’s seventh largest oil producer, will host the 28th UN climate change summit (COP28) in Dubai from November 30 to December 12. Presiding over the conference will be the chief executive of the UAE state-owned …
A Peruvian farmer is trying to hold energy giant RWE responsible for climate change – the inside story of his groundbreaking court case: On a crisp, sunny day high in the Peruvian Andes, two German judges gaze across a mountain lake to the towering white glaciers in the distance. Dark spots are visible on the …
The afterglow of an explosive collision between giant planets may have been detected in a far-off star system: A visualisation of the huge, glowing planetary body produced by a planetary collision. Mark Garlick, Author provided The afterglow of a massive collision between two giant planets may have been detected for the first time. The wreckage …
Giant sea lizards: fossils in Morocco reveal the astounding diversity of marine life 66 million years ago, just before the asteroid hit: Sixty-six million years ago, the Cretaceous period ended. Dinosaurs disappeared, along with around 90% of all species on Earth. The patterns and causes of this extinction have been debated since palaeontology began. Was …
German police have long collaborated with energy giant RWE to enforce ecological catastrophe: Eviction aftermath in Lutzerath, early 2023. Lützi Lebt / flickr, CC BY-NC-SA In early 2023, the German village of Lützerath was the site of violent clashes between thousands of protesters and police who wanted to clear the village so it could be …
Why we think that some extinct giant flying reptiles cared for their young: Pteranodon was a large-bodied pterosaur. YuRi Photolife / Shutterstock Our understanding of animal behaviour depends on observation. Researchers can study how animals are born, grow and develop. We can gather evidence of how they interact with each other and their environment. But …
African scientists are working to pool data that decodes diseases — a giant step: African scientists need a central repository where the genomic data they capture can be uploaded and shared. iStock/Getty Images Plus Infectious disease outbreaks in African countries are, unfortunately, all too common. Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Uganda; …
New discovery: fossilised giant zebra tracks found in South Africa: An illustration of two giant Cape zebras alongside a much smaller plains zebra. Maggie Newman Tens of thousands of years ago, a huge horse species walked, trotted and galloped across the shifting sands of what is today South Africa’s Cape south coast. The Giant Cape …
Sixteen-pound baby born in Brazil: here’s what increases the risk of giving birth to a giant baby: Zastolskiy Victor/Shutterstock A mother in Brazil recently gave birth to a two-foot-tall baby weighing 16lb (7.3kg). Angerson Santos was born via caesarean section at Hospital Padre Colombo in Parintins, Amazonas State. Angerson eclipsed the heaviest baby girl on …
How we cracked the mystery of Australia’s prehistoric giant eggs: The giant bird Genyornis went extinct in Australia around 50,000 years ago. Gifford Miller, Author provided It’s a long-running Australian detective story. From the 1980s onwards, researchers found eggshell fragments, and on rare occasions whole eggs, exposed in eroding sand dunes within the country’s arid …
Putting the bones of giant, extinct ‘thunderbirds’ under the microscope reveals how they grew: An artist's reconstruction of the giant _Dromornis stirtoni_. Peter Trusler © The largest flightless bird found anywhere in the world today is the ostrich. It stands about 2.5 metres tall and can weigh up to 240kg. But millions of years ago …
LinkedIn at 20: how a new breed of influencer is transforming the business networking giant: When someone says social media, you probably don’t immediately think of LinkedIn. But there’s no denying that the business networking site has gone the distance: it is now 20 years since it was founded in Silicon Valley. It was the …
Christine McVie – the talented anchoring force of the musical giant Fleetwood Mac: When the “classic” line-up of Fleetwood Mac that had produced the wildly successful album Rumours reunited on stage for the first time in over a decade to play President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993, it marked the triumph of a particular kind …