Top 10 Fascinating Facts from Recent Scientific Discoveries

It seems like every day scientists on Earth and in space make a new and exciting discovery, or new insights into previous discoveries come to light, all of which add to our scientific knowledge. Read on for an idea of ​​what our scientists are hard at work on in their ongoing quest to “wow” us with science they know we can never seem to get enough of…

Related: The 10 most absurd scientific experiments and discoveries

10 Huge deep-sea mountain range discovered

The online scientific journal ScienceNews.org recently reported that the number of mountains under our oceans has now doubled. According to scientists, satellites have located nearly 20,000 seamounts that we were unaware of. Like land mountains, the height of seamounts is measured from their base to their top.

In fact, the highest peak on the planet is not Mount Everest; It is Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano off the coast of Hawaii. The tallest mountain on Earth is over 33,460 feet (10,200 meters) tall!^[1]

9 Discovered the first radiation belt outside the Solar System

Scientists have discovered a radiation belt around another planet for the first time outside our solar system, according to SciTechDaily.com. They also reported on Nature the same day a Jupiter-sized exoplanet some 18 light-years away was discovered to be surrounded by a belt of energetic electrons. (FYI: A light year is a measure of distance, not time, and it’s six trillion miles.)

As radiation moves, it emits radio waves that form in bands, and these bands can give clues about the shape of an object’s magnetic field, how it’s made, and possibly whether or not it has moons. Scientists know that each planet with a global magnetic field forms bands of radiation in our solar system. So, using their network of 39 radio telescopes around the planet, they created an Earth-sized radio telescope, which the scientists used to zero in on the Jupiter-sized exoplanet with the not-so-catchy name LSR J1835+3259, and discovered the surrounding radiation belt.^[2]

8 1,100-year-old breastplate worn to ward off evil

Discovered in the ruins of an ancient fortress in Bulgaria, an 1,100-year-old breastplate inscription could be one of the oldest known samples of Cyrillic script, according to an article published by LiveScience.com. Scientists report unearthing a finger-shaped piece of lead with text referring to two friends named Dimitar and Pavel, used to ward off evil and keep its wearer out of harm’s way. Scientists don’t know who these two people were, but they suspect they were related to each other.

Dating back to the days of Tsar Simeon I, also known as Simeon the Great, the ruler of the Bulgarian Empire, the inscription was probably made during this time around AD 893 and 927. C. The Cyrillic writing system was used in Russia and other Eurasian countries. nations and developed during the Middle Ages.^[3]

7 They locate a perfectly preserved 7,000-year-old skeleton

Ancient-Origins.net reported that an extremely well-preserved 7,000-year-old skeleton found in the fetal position was recently excavated by archaeologists in Poland. The ancient skeleton discovered in loose soil contained a non-acid chemical component that naturally preserved the bones, along with a small amount of ceramic.

An archaeologist working on the excavation said: “No one predicted that we would collide with prehistoric objects.” Discovered near the city of Kraków during renovations to a town square in Słomniki, flint fragments were found along with other artifacts, but many were damaged due to heavy equipment work in the area. The investigation is ongoing.^[4]

6 Mysterious white powder found in a 3,000-year-old Armenian ruin

Inside a 3,000-year-old ancient Armenian ruin, a strange white powdery substance was found that was not what scientists first thought. As it turned out, the mysterious powder they found inside the ruins was a dream come true for historians of the art of baking, as they were piles of flour. A team of Polish-Armenian archaeologists made the find last fall, and the results are now being released. After analyzing the dust and discovering what it was, they realized that they had uncovered an old bakery since they had also located several large ovens.

Chemical analysis showed that the powder was wheat flour used to make bread. The scientists estimated that about 3.5 tons (3.2 metric tons) of flour would have fit inside the 82-square-foot (25-square-meter) structure. It was made of double rows of 18 wooden columns, which supported a roof made of reeds and supported by wooden beams. Scientists estimate that the bakery functioned around the 11th and 9th centuries BC.^[5]

5 Huge cavern under the Antarctic glacier teeming with life

According to LiveScience, a glacier called Ice Stream in West Antarctica is very hard to see as having a shoreline. Lying just 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the South Pole, all that can be seen is a flat sheet of ice, which is about 700 meters (2,300 feet) thick and extends hundreds of miles from the coast. The sun reflects off the ice so brightly during the Antarctic summer that nostrils can burn.

Though it’s hard to imagine, behind this mass of ice, lies a mud-choked tidal marsh where a stream meanders into the ocean. This terrain has been hidden until recently, its existence only being detected due to erratic seismic and radar readings. In 2021, a team of New Zealand scientists drilled a hole in the ice and dropped a camera to see what they could see.

They suspected that there was a huge cavernous depression in the ice as tall as a skyscraper. They hoped they could look at it electronically, and they did. After their initial enthusiasm, the scientists sampled the core and found it to be teeming with microscopic fossils of sea sponges, marine diatoms and, interestingly enough, pollen grains from southern beech trees.^[6]

4 Huge 100-foot-long titanosaur unearthed in Argentina

The remains of a gigantic long-necked dinosaur were excavated in Argentina measuring 100 feet (30 meters) long. Estimated to be around 90 million years old, the remains were determined to be a titanosaur, the largest of the long-necked dinosaurs. The bones of the beast were so heavy that its transport to Buenos Aires caused an accident on the road due to the displacement of the truck’s load. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

In other news, paleontologists excavated the fossil of a C. direct scattered across the Patagonian hillside, including the bones of their hips, forelimbs, and hind legs. They were so heavy that workers had to move them inch by inch to get them out of the field. The largest dinosaur found to date is probably the 150-million-year-old supersaur, excavated from the American Southwest, which measured 128 feet (39 meters) long.^[7]

3 Fragment of Halley’s Comet breaks through the roof of a family

According to an article published by IFLscience.com, a family was in for a shock when a meteor crashed through the roof of their home in Hopewell, New Jersey. According to police reports, a 4-by-6-inch (10-by-15-centimeter) object that was obviously natural and not just space junk pierced the roof of his home and ended up on the owner’s living room floor without injuring himself. someone.

Meteor showers called Eta Aquarids are caused by debris from the passage of Halley’s Comet, and though it’s been 37 years since it last traversed the solar system, the debris on its long tail trails behind it. Every May and October, Earth passes through this debris trail, triggering the Eta Aquarid meteor showers. Most of the debris is about the size of grains of sand, but occasionally a large enough piece breaks through the atmosphere and reaches the surface, as in the case of New Jersey. Since they had time to examine the space rock, scientists believe the chances are high that the object is a piece of debris from the Eta Aquarids meteor shower, making it part of the famous comet.^[8]

2 Killer Wales is sinking ships and teaching others to do it

Talk about creepy. He New York Times published an article reporting eyewitness testimony about how orcas are sinking ships in Europe and teaching other whales how to join in on the fun. Since 2020, witnesses have reported dozens of killer whale attacks in the Straits of Gibraltar involving the huge animals, sometimes causing serious damage by targeting a vessel’s rudder. Scientists think they have found the reason: a single orca was somehow traumatized enough to trigger the strange behavior and spread it to the other whales in the pod.

As evidence, the scientists point to an orca in the same pod they call White Gladis, who was somehow injured in a collision with a ship or caught in a net. But regardless, the stress caused the animal to have a seizure and it began to attack the boats. Scientists theorize that this whale’s aggression was transferred to the entire pod, causing them to ram ships.^[9]

1 The “brain-eating” amoeba arrives in the northern states of the US.

A “brain-eater” amoeba has invaded the northeastern United States and is beginning to infect more victims. These deadly attacks by brain-eating amoebas typically occur in the southern states. Still, recent climate change has allowed the deadly single-celled animals to increase their range north into states like Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana. According to the CDC, the animal’s scientific name is Naegleria fowleriUsually thriving in soils that receive a constant supply of cool, warm water, it can live in hot water tanks and pipes inside houses.

They are nicknamed “brain-eaters” as they can rarely reach the human spinal cord and brain, but since the usual route is through drinking water, stomach acids quickly kill the animals. N. fowleri it also cannot spread between humans. Although also rare, a brain-eating insect can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), an extremely rare infection that is often fatal.^[10]