Category: Science

UN General Assembly Endorses New World Map That Shows Africa’s Size More Accurately

Posted on by Dave

For centuries, one of the world’s most familiar maps has given people a distorted impression of the relative size of continents. That could begin to change after the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a new world map projection designed to represent Africa and other landmasses more accurately. On September 4, 2026, the General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution promoting the Equal Earth projection, a map designed to preserve the relative areas of continents more faithfully than the traditional Mercator projection....Click for full post

The Return of Measles: Why Cases Are Rising Again in the United States

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For years, measles seemed like a disease that belonged to the past. Thanks to widespread vaccination, the United States declared measles eliminated in 2000. Now, however, measles is making a troubling comeback. As of August 27, 2026, the United States had reported 2,903 confirmed measles cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That is already substantially higher than the 2,289 cases reported during all of 2025. The CDC also reported 37 new outbreaks during 2026, with...Click for full post

GPS Glitched Across the US by as Much as 33 Feet. Scientists Have Never Seen This Before

Posted on by Dave

A powerful solar storm in November 2025 caused widespread disturbances in Earth's upper atmosphere, producing GPS positioning errors of more than 33 feet across parts of the United States. Researchers say the scale of the phenomenon has never been observed before. GPS has become so deeply embedded in modern life that most people rarely think about what happens between a satellite overhead and the location appearing on a smartphone screen. But new research suggests that one of the technologies we...Click for full post

Traces of Two Unknown Human Ancestors Found in Modern DNA

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The human family tree just became even more complicated. Scientists have discovered genetic evidence of two previously unknown human lineages hidden within the DNA of people living today. Unlike Neanderthals and Denisovans, these mysterious ancestors have never been identified from a sequenced genome. Instead, researchers worked backward from the DNA of modern humans to uncover evidence that our ancestors repeatedly encountered and interbred with other human groups. The findings, published in the journal Science, suggest that human evolution was not...Click for full post

Scientists May Have Proved a Century-Old Theory That the Vacuum of Space Isn’t Really Empty

Posted on by Dave

For centuries, scientists have imagined a vacuum as the ultimate form of nothingness—a region completely devoid of matter, particles and activity. But modern physics has long suggested that the vacuum of space may be far stranger than it appears. Now, astronomers studying one of the most extreme objects in the universe may have found the strongest evidence yet that empty space can actually change the way light travels. The discovery centers on a bizarre quantum phenomenon known as vacuum birefringence,...Click for full post

Scientists Reconstruct 165-Million-Year-Old Jurassic Insect Sounds

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Imagine standing in a forest 165 million years ago. Dinosaurs may have been moving through the vegetation, but they weren't the only animals making noise. High above the forest floor and among the plants, ancient cricket and katydid relatives were producing calls that may have filled the Jurassic night. Now, scientists have reconstructed what some of those 165-million-year-old Jurassic insect sounds may have been like. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, combines fossil evidence...Click for full post