A new map of the Milky Way by Japanese space experts has put Earth 2,000 light years closer to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This map has suggested that the center of the Milky Way, and the black hole which sits there, is located 25,800 light-years from Earth. This is…

If you were to greet a Neanderthal with a handshake, it might feel a little awkward. The digits of the Stone Age people, who went extinct about 40,000 years ago, were much chunkier than ours. What’s more, a Neanderthal’s thumb would have stuck out from his hand at a much wider angle. “If you were…

The Covid-19 pandemic has set gender equality back years, with women around the world taking on the “lion’s share” of extra domestic chores, the United Nations reported on Thursday. It comes one day after the international body warned that the pandemic is driving further violence against refugee, displaced and stateless women and girls. Thursday’s “Whose…

You never know what you might find while walking along the beach. People often come across coins, shells and trash, but a teacher in Northern Ireland made a discovery that will go down in history. In the 1980s, the late Roger Byrne, a schoolteacher and fossil collector, found several unidentified fossils on the east coast…

Thanksgiving is “potentially the mother of all super spreader events.” That’s the verdict from CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner, as millions of Americans travel to be with loved ones this week, risking an explosion of Covid-19 infections in the coming days. The US has been here before. Reiner pointed to the fallout from the…

Researchers have long known that the meat-eating Tyrannosaurus rex had a teenage growth spurt, gaining around 35 to 45 pounds per week, to reach its colossal size. But up until now, it hasn’t been clear whether all dinosaurs shared this growth pattern. Was a T. rex-style period of extreme growth the only way dinos became…

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has been unable to name its traditional word of the year for 2020, instead exploring how far and how quickly the language has developed this year. “It quickly became apparent that 2020 is not a year that could neatly be accommodated in one single ‘word of the year,’” the OED…

After weeks of deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has given Tigrayan forces a 72-hour deadline to surrender. In a statement posted on Twitter Sunday, Abiy said that government forces were now “in the third and final phase” of their military operation in the area. “We urge you to…

More than 830 miles above Earth’s surface, a next-generation satellite will keep an eye on global sea levels. The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite launched Saturday. The joint venture between NASA and the European Space Agency launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on November 21 at 12:17 p.m. ET. A livestream of the launch…