Category: Science

Mercury May Be Shrinking Faster Than Scientists Expected

Posted on by Dave

Mercury may be getting smaller—and scientists now think they underestimated just how much the tiny planet has contracted. A new study suggests that Mercury could have shrunk by as much as 14.5 miles (23 kilometers) in diameter since its formation, potentially 30% more than previous estimates. The discovery is giving planetary scientists a fresh look at what is happening inside the solar system's smallest planet and could help explain how Mercury evolved over the past 4.5 billion years. Mercury Is...Click for full post

Have Scientists Discovered a Dark Matter Particle? Scientists Detect a Mysterious Signal Deep Underground

Posted on by Dave

For nearly a century, scientists have known that something invisible appears to be shaping the universe. Now, researchers may have captured the most intriguing clue yet. The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, located nearly a mile underground in South Dakota, has detected a single unusual particle interaction that scientists have been unable to explain using known background processes. The event is consistent with what researchers might expect if a hypothetical dark matter particle collided with an atomic nucleus. It is an extraordinary...Click for full post

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

Posted on by Dave

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

Posted on by Dave

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