The low-cost ocean current energy generator invented by a teenager is getting international attention yet again for its promise of providing clean electricity to distant coastal areas. Hannah Herbst, a 15-year-old inventor from Florida, came up with an innovative renewable energy system worth only $12 that can generate electricity using ocean currents and recycled materials…
The Moon’s revolution around the earth is an example of gravity and motion in action which is quite intriguing. While it might appear that the moon just revolves around the earth, scientists state that it is actually falling towards earth all the time but is moving sideways at high speed so that it does not…
Deep inside the forests of northern Finland, scientists discovered something that sounded almost impossible at first: microscopic particles of real gold hidden inside ordinary tree needles. Researchers studying Norway spruce trees near the Kittila gold mining region found that the trees contained tiny solid gold nanoparticles absorbed from underground mineral-rich groundwater. The surprising discovery revealed…
Image: Left/Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul/Right/Canva Scientists have found the remains of a huge 90-foot dinosaur in Thailand, thus confirming the discovery of the biggest dinosaur ever found in Southeast Asia. The recently discovered species called Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis is a very large sauropod dinosaur that lived in the region some 113 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous…
There is a special kind of tyranny in being born into a world designed for somebody else’s hand. The scissors are wrong. The classroom desk is wrong. The ink smudges the wrong way. The handshake, the ritual, the factory machine, the spiral notebook, the cricket field, the guitar, the language itself, all seem to whisper…
At an age when most teenagers are focused on schoolwork and video games, Taylor Wilson was attempting something that even advanced laboratories struggle to achieve. Working from his parents’ garage in Reno, Nevada, the 14-year-old successfully built a functioning nuclear fusion device known as a fusor. Using vacuum chambers, high-voltage equipment, deuterium gas and self-taught…
Charles Darwin (Image: Wikipedia) People generally remember Charles Darwin as the man who transformed science. His name immediately brings thoughts of evolution, natural selection and discoveries that changed how human beings understand life itself. Most people imagine him surrounded by notebooks, specimens and scientific observations. The picture that often comes to mind is of someone…
For nearly a century, thousands of strange holes carved into a barren Peruvian hillside puzzled archaeologists, historians, and even conspiracy theorists. Stretching across the dry slopes of the Pisco Valley in southern Peru, the massive formation contains more than 5,000 carefully arranged pits that can only truly be appreciated from the air. Some believed they…
The world’s largest river delta is so massive that most people never guess it. Image credit – Wikimedia When people consider world-famous river deltas, the Nile often comes first due to its importance in the history of Egyptian civilisation. However, in terms of the size of the delta, lands are compared among experts and geographers,…
In 1940, a cracked silicon crystal at Bell Laboratories led Russell Ohl to discover the p-n junction, a pivotal moment for electronics. Strange current jump on a fractured piece of silicon opened the door to solar cells. Image credit – Wikimedia In 1940, a cracked silicon crystal at Bell Laboratories led Russell Ohl to discover…
The Chemists were vapourising carbon and noticed a perfect 60-atom cage. Image credit – Gemini While conducting experiments on the vaporisation of carbon atoms in 1985, chemists Harold Kroto, Robert Curl, and Richard Smalley obtained surprising results that showed the stability of a cluster comprising only 60 carbon atoms. This molecular structure became famous by…
Earthquake-resistant technology may soon become simpler, cheaper and far more reliable thanks to a newly patented steel sphere cylinder developed by researchers at the University of Sharjah. The passive seismic damping device, created by civil engineering professor Moussa Leblouba, uses friction generated by steel balls inside a hollow cylinder to absorb earthquake vibrations in buildings,…
Parakeets fluttering in and out of people’s houses, gardens and urban parks are becoming a regular occurrence in many places. However, experts suggest that the bright green parakeets might actually provide information on climate change, biodiversity, urban ecology, habitat shifts and the state of the environment. In fact, according to the research done on ring-necked…
When Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado returned to his family land in Brazil during the 1990s, he reportedly found a devastated landscape instead of the lush forest he remembered from childhood. Years of deforestation, cattle grazing and soil degradation had stripped the land of wildlife, water and greenery. Rivers had dried up and much of the…
Starship test flight has been building for weeks, with space enthusiasts closely watching every update from SpaceX. The company’s massive Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful ever built, has become one of the most closely followed experimental space systems in the world. Now, the schedule has delayed the 12th flight test of Starship by…
B. F. Skinner (Image: Wikipedia) There is something slightly strange about the way people react to the word failure. Even hearing it can feel uncomfortable. The word carries weight. People hear it and immediately think about things that did not work out. Exams that went badly. Jobs they did not get. Plans that collapsed halfway…
Dan Shechtman found a forbidden pattern while looking at an aluminium alloy through an electron microscope. Image credit – Wikimedia When Dan Shechtman analysed the aluminium-manganese alloy rapidly cooled in April 1982 through a transmission electron microscope, the materials scientist found something unusual. The diffraction pattern on the metal revealed the tenfold symmetry, a structure…
A routine fishing trip on Lake Michigan led to an extraordinary discovery: a pre-Civil War shipwreck, the George L. Newman. Image Credit: Gemini A typical weekend fishing trip ends with stories about what went wrong. When Tim Wollak and his six-year-old daughter, Henley, took their boat on a trip near Green Island on Lake Michigan,…
A unique, emoji-shaped Lake Rouge in Quebec vanished overnight due to a catastrophic outburst flood. Image Credit: NASA/Landsat The secluded boreal forest in southwest Quebec has secrets that are revealed when you study it with a keen eye or look at it from a distance of thousands of miles. Within this vast expanse, the remarkable,…
Maria Branyas Morera, who lived to 117, defied aging expectations. image Credit: Wikipedia Imagine having a 117th birthday celebration with a sharp mind, a strong heart, and enough energy for the daily walk. If you’re Maria Branyas Morera, this was not just a wish; it was her reality. Although most people think of getting older…
