Science

Excavation works in the City of London has discovered the earliest hand written 2,000 year old documents ever found in Britain. The tablets were discovered under an office block built in the 1950s that was being renovated for the future European headquarters of Bloomberg. Scribes used a metal stylus to write out their messages in wax that once covered the ... Read More »

North America is home to 190 of the world’s 655 identified salamander species and while they have avoided a deadly fungus that has ravaged the salamander population in Europe. At issue is salamander chytrid disease, caused by a fungus that infects both salamanders and newts with near total lethality. The fungus, known as B.sal, infects the skin, causing wart-like lesions. ... Read More »

Finally, the warm weather is here, and summer is a mere three weeks away. The summer solstice officially arrives at 7:34 p.m. on June 20 this year. Bright Mars is just above the pinchers of the Scorpion, and Saturn is 7 degrees to the north (left) of bright Antares at the heart of the Scorpion. Saturn is at opposition Friday, ... Read More »

Astrophysicists now reveal how much the entire Milky Way galaxy weighs, which is an estimate of 700 billion solar masses, that has been the most accurate measurement yet by astronomers. Gwendolyn Eadie, a physicist at McMaster University, has been working on calculating the mass of the Milky Way for some time, and in a press release, she noted that “our ... Read More »

Last week, two new lava flows broke out on Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, oozing red hot molten rock down the volcano’s Pu’u O’o cone. The video, taken by the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on May 26, shows lava spattering, which is caused by bubbles releasing gas in the lake causing lava particles to eject into the ... Read More »

The biggest sponge in the world has been discovered in the deep sea off the north-western Hawaiian Islands. The enormous specimen measures 12ft by 7ft (over 3.5m by 2m) – about the same size as a minivan. It is living 7,000 feet below the ocean surface, in the depths of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. As the researchers note in ... Read More »

A UBC student could be the youngest person to ever discover a planet outside of our solar system — and she’s found four of them. Michelle Kunimoto, 22, found the planets by searching through light curves collected by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, combing through information overlooked by other scientists. The planets, designated “planet candidates” until independently confirmed, are exciting discoveries. ... Read More »

Bees are drawn to flowers by an invisible electric field as well as their bright colours, a new research has shown. Scientists from the University of Bristol also suggest that more animals are using these highly sensitive natural sensors for more accurate navigation. Scientists already know that bumblebees have the ability to sense and detect electrical signals from flowers, however, ... Read More »

For the first time ever, tiger trout will soon be swimming in Diamond Lake’s crystal blue waters. Biologists hope these sterile trout prey on any invasive fish once they are large enough next spring. Tiger trout are a hybrid between a female brown trout and a male brook trout. Diamond Lake will get 5,000 tiger trout in the six to ... Read More »

Footage has emerged that appears to show a UFO flying over a US military base, the video, which was uploaded to YouTube, was shot by a couple in Dayton, Ohio, as they were watching the sunset from their home. “It looks like it’s moving with the clouds,” a woman is heard saying on the video. The 13-minute YouTube video appears ... Read More »

A 40,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth, the best-preserved specimen in existence, will take centre stage when the Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age feature exhibition opens June 3 at the Royal B.C. Museum. Lyuba (pronounced Lee-OO-bah) is the world’s most complete mammoth. Her remarkable discovery in the frozen soil of the Arctic in 2007 by a Siberian reindeer herder made immediate ... Read More »