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Up until now, scientists had only recognized a single species of giraffe made up of several subspecies. But, according to the most inclusive genetic analysis of giraffe relationships to date, giraffes actually aren't one species, but four. For comparison, the genetic differences among giraffe species are at least as great as those between polar and brown bears. The unexpected findings reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on September 8 highlight the urgent need for further study of the four genetically isolated species and for greater conservation efforts for the world's tallest mammal, the researchers say. "We were extremely...

A Chinese firm has claimed that they have developed radar technology that can detect stealth jets. The quantum radar was reportedly created by Intelligent Perception Technology, a branch of defence and electronics firm CETC. They claim it is capable of detecting a target at a range of 60 miles and according to the Xinhua news agency, it was successfully tested last month.

The discovery of two massive holes punched through a stream of stars could help answer questions about the nature of dark matter, the mysterious substance holding galaxies together. Researchers have detected two massive holes which have been ‘punched’ through a stream of stars just outside the Milky Way, and found that they were likely caused by clumps of dark matter, the invisible substance which holds galaxies together and makes up a quarter of all matter and energy in the universe. The scientists, from the University of Cambridge, found the holes by studying the distribution of stars in the Milky Way....

Just hours after it was announced that Fox News would be paying $20million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit with Gretchen Carlson, the former network anchor hired a major celebrity publicist to craft her second career. Carlson has hired Cindi Berger of PMK*BNC to handle all aspects of her personal public relations, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The company told HR that the next phase in Carlson's career will 'include a television presence, penning a book, speaking engagements and philanthropy'. Berger has previously represented Lena Dunham, Barbara Walters, Robert Redford and Rosie O'Donnell.

Explanation: Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl, until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (left), NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular...

Where to see the vestiges of nuclear weapons tests around the world. The atomic age began on July 16, 1945, when the Manhattan Project detonated its first successful nuclear weapon test in the New Mexico desert. Less than a month later, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From then up until the signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1996, over 2,000 nuclear test explosions have detonated on remote islands, atolls and stretches of desert around the world—the vast majority in the United States and Soviet Union—to prepare for the possibility of nuclear war. Although, mercifully,...

When one reads a physics paper in an esteemed journal, one does not generally wonder if it was written by a cat. But such was the case for an article in the 1970s credited to co-author F.D.C. Willard—the Cat Who Published. Jack H. Hetherington was a professor of physics at Michigan State University in 1975, when he finished what would become an influential and often-cited physics paper. The academic writing, entitled, Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He, was an in-depth exploration of atomic behavior at different temperatures. It would have flown over the heads of most lay...

Video of a graphene battery running a vehicle

Astronomers hunting for Planet Nine have found some 50 new objects lying beyond the orbit of Neptune – including a few that may help them track down this elusive, distant world. The new discoveries, described in a paper accepted to the Astronomical Journal, mark another step toward finding this mysterious giant planet, which could help rewrite our understanding of our own solar system. In 2014, astronomers Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Chadwick Trujillo of Northern Arizona University announced that they’d found an object with the most distant orbit ever observed in the solar system – a...

New studies have failed to find even a single positive benefit to spanking children and a near endless amount of horrible effects. Dr. Elizabeth Gershoff joins Stefan Molyneux to discuss her latest study, refuting the common pro-spanking arguments, why social justice warriors have nothing to do with less aggressive parenting, associating love with physical abuse and ending the escalating cycle of violence in relationships. Dr. Elizabeth Gershoff is a developmental psychologist, in addition to being a Faculty Research Associate and Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at University of Texas at Austin. She recently published a revolutionary new...

From the NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER and the “how long until global warming is blamed” department.A 60-year pattern in the stratosphere changes upThis disruption to the wind pattern – called the “quasi-biennial oscillation” – did not have any immediate impact on weather or climate as we experience it on Earth’s surface. But it does raise interesting questions for the NASA scientists who observed it: If a pattern holds for six decades and then suddenly changes, what caused that to happen? Will it happen again? What effects might it have?“The quasi-biennial oscillation is the stratosphere’s Old Faithful,” said Paul Newman,...

Washington (CNN)It isn't exactly a squid pro quo, but scientists are naming a new fish after President Barack Obama partly as a way to say thanks for his decision last month to create a new protected area off the Hawaiian coast. National Geographic reported Friday that the maroon and gold creature, which was discovered 300 feet deep in the waters off Kure Atoll, is the only known fish to live within Papahānaumokuākea, an expanse of coral reefs and seamounts home to more than 7,000 species. One looking for the fish's official name, however, is likely to stay hooked -- a...

More than two-and-a-half billion people are at risk of developing the Zika virus, scientists have warned. It comes as the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak of Zika remains an international health emergency and noted the virus is continuing to infect new countries. Malaysia has also confirmed its first case of the virus after authorities in Singapore confirmed they have detected more than 150 people with the virus. New analysis of travel, climate and mosquito patterns in parts of Asia and Africa found people in these regions were particularly at risk.

A new record for the most distant galaxy cluster has been set using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. This galaxy cluster may have been caught right after birth, a brief, but important stage of evolution never seen before. The galaxy cluster is called CL J1001+0220 (CL J1001 for short) and is located about 11.1 billion light years from Earth. The discovery of this object pushes back the formation time of galaxy clusters – the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity – by about 700 million years. “This galaxy cluster isn’t just remarkable for its distance,...

When astronomers discovered a strange pattern of light near a distant star called KIC 8462852 back in October, it was like nothing anyone had observed before. When a planet passes in front of star, the star’s brightness usually dips by around 1 percent, but KIC 8462852 has been experiencing dips of up to 22 percent, suggesting that something huge is zooming past. And now a second star with strange dips in brightness has been identified. Named EPIC 204278916, the star is estimated to be about the size of our Sun in diameter, but has only half its mass. It was...

Fusion energy has long been heralded as the power-supply of the future, but the sad joke is, it always will be. The experimental energy source is perennially 30 years away from being viable on a mass-scale. ... Conventional tokamaks are shaped like a donut, but recent design improvements have led to the creation of spherical tokamaks, which are shaped more like a cored apple and are able to generate magnetic fields to produce high-pressure plasma in a more energy- and cost-effective manner. The two most advanced spherical tokamaks on Earth are the UK’s soon-to-be-completed Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) and...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is quite serious about flying safety. If an aircraft crashes, the FAA will conduct an investigation called a Root Cause Analysis. This involves methodical detective work that tracks events from the moment of the crash back in time. Flight and voice data recorders are invaluable to the inquiry. Root Cause Analysis identifies the most obvious problem that led to the crash and then lists the problem’s cause. That cause is then treated like a problem in itself, and the cause for its occurrence is investigated. This cycle is repeated until the very first cause is...

An ocean research organization has discovered a nursery and probably even the birthing site of great white sharks in the North Atlantic — and it’s near Montauk, Long Island. Chris Fischer, the founding chairman of Ocearch, the organization behind the development, told CBS News that they had “definitely [found] the nursery, likely the birthing site.” The find is “probably the most significant discovery we’ve ever made on the ocean,” Fischer added.

In seven countries that recently experienced Zika outbreaks, there were also sharp increases in the numbers of people suffering from a form of temporary paralysis, researchers reported Wednesday. The analysis, published online in The New England Journal of Medicine, adds to substantial evidence that Zika infections — even asymptomatic ones — may bring on a paralysis called Guillain-Barré syndrome. The syndrome can be caused by a number of other factors, including infection with other viruses. Researchers studying the Zika epidemic in French Polynesia had estimated that roughly 1 in 4,000 people infected with the virus could develop the syndrome. The...

In an extraordinary find, a team of Australian researchers have uncovered the world's oldest fossils in a remote area of Greenland, capturing the earliest history of the planet and demonstrating that life on Earth emerged rapidly in the planet's early years. Led by the University of Wollongong's (UOW) Professor Allen Nutman, the team discovered 3.7-billion-year-old stromatolite fossils in the world's oldest sedimentary rocks, in the Isua Greenstone Belt along the edge of Greenland's icecap. The findings are outlined in a study published in Nature, with co-authors Associate Professor Vickie Bennett from The Australian National University (ANU), the University of New...